Magic and Programs
by Hearns
Summary: Dave Stutler, the Prime Merlinian and Quorra, the last of the Isos destinies are about to intertwine in ways that no one ever saw coming. Rated T might go up to M later due to content. Chapter 19
1. INTRO

Magic and Programs

By Hearns

All Characters owned by Disney. Everything else is written by me for fun.

This is a crossover between Tron: Legacy and The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Note, I spent a weekend or so cleaning this up and rereading it to make some serious upgrades as mentioned by a friend of mine that I let take a look over this. Also, if you see a ton of capital letters throughout this, I wrote a large portion of this on my IPod with my thumbs and the keyboard software has this bad tendency to do an auto shift at the start of each sentence.

Just a warning before hand as you read.

* * *

Introductions:

* * *

There are layers of reality.

Places where Magic and Science come together.

Where there are beings that evolution has granted powers to change the world.

Now consider that you are a person named Dave Stutler, who had discovered a few months ago that you are a super sorcerer who is capable of fighting the forces of eternal darkness, and has to juggle his normal life of being an introductory physics teacher at NYU at the same time.

Now let us head to the other side of the continent to where a being forged from a different kind of magic; one Quorra the last of the Iso, student and surrogate daughter of the late User Kevin Flynn. Who due to her birth has been able to tap into the ancient knowledge of all of existence and literally holds the keys to humanity taking its next steps to a new age of existence and its next step in evolution.

Our story takes place in this sandwiched reality that is just beyond our ability to see it.

Some have given their lives to protect those special beings.

Now as the world becomes more interconnected, there is time that will be arising where these two different kinds of magics will need to join forces for the survival of existence itself.

With those ominous words we begin our story.

* * *

For Sam Flynn who has spent the last couple of weeks getting Quorra used to the real world have been a bit trying time. But it was ultimately worth it. Between buying her clothes, getting her used to Human food and some of the most basic social norms of the world. Quorra had been fitting in alright, well with the occasional social flub in crowds in looking for locations and time references that was dealable. Though Quorra was able to protect herself considering that she beat the crap out of a wannabe carjacker and his pals when Sam and her were heading back to his bike after doing some shopping. Quorra may have looked like easy prey, but in a fight… Well, between the emergency room these guys were probably going to be in trying to explain their injuries away. They swore they had gone toe to toe with a Jedi Knight.

That situation made Sam think of Quorra's training on the Grid with his late father. There were things that Sam knew that he had to do to ensure that his father's death wasn't in vain. And he would do it by connecting with the people around him and putting the right the wrongs that had happened to his father's company.

Between his duties of putting his late Father's company back on track, Sam has seen that on the brief time that he had with his father, that the longing and feelings of lost that he felt about being abandoned by his father was also felt by his father as well. This feeling of loss had been shared between the two of the though worlds apart.

From what Quorra had said about her years with Kevin Flynn that a day didn't pass where Kevin Flynn longed to be with his son, just to have one more day with him. Quorra had said this right after Sam had caught her meditating at sunrise as Marvin was having a staring contest with the former computer program. Seeing Quorra wearing her grey t-shirt and black lace panties with her legs in a lotus pose made Sam think about what else had in common with this spunky young girl.

Seeing how Quorra was adjusting there were going to be times where she would just be a mystery to him. Though he was still dealing with the entire kissing and hugging everyone she came across mess that had happened in public as well as dealing with her being out of her environment that tended to get her in a little trouble. But it had been one of those moments where Quorra was still learning human norms.

She was still wary of people after that, but with Alan and his son Jet... There had been some understanding. Well after the yammering on for five hours about Flynn's theories on technology and algorithms. Alan realized that Flynn had been alive and this girl had considered him like a surrogate father just like Alan had been to Sam when Alan had called her Flynn across the table. Yet another strange Dinner incident to add to Sam's list of situations where fact was stranger than fiction, Alan had been a little freaked about it himself, but Quorra considered a sign of honor seeing that one of her mentor's closest friends had thought of her as being a worthy successor to the Flynn Legacy.

Seeing Quorra sit there with Marvin who had lost the staring contest with her had decided to chase after a cat that had been coming into the old Dumont work yards.

Quorra had commented that in the stories she had heard about Tron in her youth, prior to the Grid going to Hell in a hand basket that Dumont had been the IO tower guardian that had aided Tron in contacting Alan in the Real World. Seeing that Sam had taken up residence in Dumont's late User Dr. Walter Gibbs old workshop had made her feel that she had some connection back to her world.

That same world that now lay on an augmented memory card that now hung around Sam's neck. Seeing that it was going to be a day where he needed to ground himself again, Sam had decided to take a day off from work and go and have dinner at a old shrimp place on the coast that Sam and his father used to frequent in his youth and take Quorra there. Lately she had been developing an interest in sea food after tasting some sea food that he had brought home from work one day as they were in the process of creating a document trail for her.

Between the food and Quorra talking about her life, she finally broke down and Quorra confessed that she had been having nightmares about not being able to save her mentor and friend. Sam spoke to her and said that over the last few weeks had had not been sleeping due to the fact that he had been having nightmares about not being able to save his dad and working to save his old man's company was the only thing preventing him from fully breaking down. With that Sam said that they needed to have some closure so with that they decided to hold a small memorial for Kevin Flynn. A way for the both of them to say good bye to the only parent they had know and start their lives again.

Alan had been filled in on some of what had happened on Flynn's death in a watered down plausible real world situation that wouldn't raise too many questions. That Flynn had gone into hiding after while working on a side project that everyone had speculated for years about matter teleportation back in 89.

Sam had said to Alan that Flynn had worked a few kinks out the system, but knowing the danger several of his team had been killed by someone on his own staff who wanted to use it for nefarious means, killed most of the research team.

Quorra's family had been part of the project which was partially true; her folks were part of the Genetic Algorithms project to see if they could work on cures for diseases. That part was true; Quorra was a walking encyclopedia of medial cures in her DNA.

While running with the source activate code to the technology, Flynn had come across Quorra who had witnessed the deaths of everyone she had ever cared about on the project and had gotten out of town with the help of a friend. This friend had died in an accident and Flynn had taken her off the Grid to hide from this guy and keep the technology from being sold to hostile nations.

The idea of beaming a nuke into the White House was the last thing anyone wanted and Flynn knew that.

That pretty much scared the crap out of Alan. During this time Quorra had become like a surrogate daughter to Flynn. Soaking up all of his knowledge of technology, ideology, and stuff that Flynn could teach her during their time together. Since it wasn't until Sam had done the entire ENCOM tower stunt that the guy had come up with an idea to flush Flynn out by trapping Alan and forcing Flynn to cough up the information on the Teleporter that things started to make sense.

Instead of Alan, the guy got Sam when Alan decided to send him to the old Arcade.

Quorra had been watching and saved his ass. Taken him off Grid to his Father's place and let father and son catch up on events as Flynn explained the series of events for his disappearance, Quorra and the project he had been working on. After that it had become a race to prevent the guy from getting the technology to work and causing some big trouble. Flynn had made sure that the technology wouldn't fall into the wrong hands by ensuring Sam and Quorra with the code they needed to escape from his lab and... Well Flynn taking the bastard with him by using the energies of the technology to destroy the both of them.

With that story told, it was stated that Flynn had died in an industrial accident to prevent the technology from being used for ill. But Sam had hinted that a portion of it that his father had discovered could be used for healing and Quorra had that knowledge as Sam himself had witnessed.

Alan realized that Flynn had made a breakthrough that he had been talking about the night he disappeared and seeing Quorra talk about some of the medical breakthroughs had wetted his appetite of where to take ENCOM in the future. The Walter-Reed Medical center was about to get some more help than it could shake a stick at with the tech ENCOM was about to be sending their way.

Though being home schooled did leave Quorra very insular about people she was around but with an appetite about the world around her. Some of the conversations did lead Alan to think of her as being different, but chocked it up to Flynn's teachings. If he had only known.

It had taken a week or so to do the preparations for the funeral which for the most part was a way for the world to say good bye to a great man.

For the most part Quorra had helped Sam write the words that would be placed on the Tombstone.

They were as follows:

Kevin Flynn

Father, Mentor, Friend

He worked at bringing the worlds together

Human, Program; Basic, Iso

That last part was in tribute to the worlds he had saved.

Underneath that Quorra had placed several glyphs underneath which included Quorra's Iso Glyph and the symbols of Tron's data disk. There were several other Glyphs that didn't mean much to Sam, but in some degree had meaning for Quorra and his Dad. "The code of the universe and those who live in it." Quorra had said wearing the black suit Sam had gotten her for the service.

The sky was cloudy, but the sky knew when to shine on Flynn's grave during the service. Which was fitting. The Sun was in its own way was saying goodbye to a warrior of light.

Unseen until Hours after the memorial service several photos were taken of the grave marker and found their way to the press by a lawns keeper wanting to make a few extra bucks. Though there was no body, the message was clear... The world was a little darker without a bright spirit such as Kevin Flynn.

* * *

Kevin Flynn Dead?

Is what the headline said on the Tabloid on the checkout isle said as Dave Stutler was checking out with his groceries for him and his girlfriend Becky for the meal he had planned to make for them for their anniversary. Between him learning to cook French cuisine after Dave's first flight on Balthazar's steel bird to Paris, Becky had been close to him. That and Balthazar his mentor in the world of magic had been busy teaching his girlfriend Veronica about the modern world ever since Dave had defeated the infamous Morgana La Fey. So for the last few weeks Dave had been practicing on small stuff. Mostly levitation and energy bolt firing just to keep sharp. That and his Tesla Coil project was keeping him on his toes. "Thank you very much superpowers for keeping me from being killed by electrical bolts." Dave had said on several occasions to himself. But looking at his list of stuff he was going to be using for tonight's meal, Bennet, his roommate had gotten the hint that tonight was Dave's time in the apartment with Becky. It had only cost Dave a few movie tickets and a couple of dinner reservations for Bennet to get the point to take his own girlfriend out on the town. Bennet had obliged with gusto and a few references of interacting and then some. Dave got the hint.

As Dave was standing in line he would have passed his piece of mail packing stuffing by except for the fact that he recognized several of the glyphs on the gravestone. Several of which he saw everyday in his offsite lab/ magic training area. Some of the symbols were from his training circle.

Quickly grabbing the paper and tossing onto the conveyer belt, Dave reached into his pocket and pulled out his Cell phone.

"Balthazar, its Dave… How many of the old Merlinian order are still around? Because I just found several symbols that match the ones on my training circle on the front page of a newspaper."

* * *

Becky Barns had heard about the death of Kevin Flynn in the news, but seeing the pictures in the tabloid before her and the fact that three of the most powerful sorcerers in the world were dissecting the glyphs before them. Becky quickly started to use her own talent of researching stuff on the Internet to pull up any information that would be of any help to them.

"Okay let me get this straight…" Dave was looking at the information before him in his large book of spells that Balthazar had given him. "How does a computer programmer who disappeared over twenty years ago, get to be declared dead by his son and has a ton of magical and mathematical glyphs placed on this tombstone?"

"I don't know?" Balthazar said looking at the symbols and started matching them up with what he knew. "But several of the symbols match up to being in relation to some very powerful spells." That was when Victoria traced one of the symbols that looked like an Octagon with a sideways "T" by it.

"Yes, but why does he have the ancient Greek Symbol that belonged to Galatea?" Victoria said examining the symbol with a magnifying glass.

"Galatea as in the statue that was brought to life?" Becky said realizing that there might be another member of the Order of Merlin that may have been lost over the centuries.

"Yes Becky… and it looks like our only lead happens to be the Multibillionaire son of our late mage."

"Yeah, and if we have another mage out there who doesn't know how to control his powers, then all magic users everywhere might be in real big trouble." Balthazar said as Becky started typing away on the computer screen.

Becky looked down at her Google search on the web.

"Yeah, and given Sam Flynn's past record of bucking the Law. I think you three should head to the West Coast ASAP." Becky said as she pulled up a long line of criminal offenses of where Sam Flynn stated that he had issues with authorizes. Several of which included his yearly tradition of doing a cliff jump off of the ENCOM corporate offices. The latest incident was of Sam Flynn posting to the web the most current edition of the ENCOM operating system. Now Sam was the head of multi-billion dollar company after coming to his senses. Rich with money and power, combined with Magic would equal a very bad combination if Sam didn't do things right and everyone at the table knew that.

* * *

Let me know what you think so far of this story.

Hearns


	2. Chapter 1

Magic and Programs

Chapter 1:

* * *

Quorra sat staring at the computer hard drive that had been her world. The new clothes she wore of the User world mirrored some of the black color scheme she had grown up with on the Grid. But the sky blue surf shirt that covered her upper body was very form fitting had been borrowed from one of Sam's extreme sports friends who was on the process of moving to a land in the User world called Alaska. Though a little big for Quorra's frame it at least provided her some more garments to wear. Quorra wondered who this O'Neill person was, but whomever had their name written across the front of her shirt must had a lot of shirts given that she had seen them all around the user world. But the largeness of the shirt made her feel out of place as her emotions ran rampant as she felt the weight of the world, well her world on her shoulder/hands.

Now seeing the hard drive and the computer it belonged to moved out of her Mentor Flynn's old Lab made her cry. This is where her friends had lived and died at; where Anon, Tron's assistant security program had risked his life and died to save her during the genocidal times of the Purge of the Isos. Where Flynn had been reunited with his son and died stopping Clu2's invasion of the User's world. All of this could be seen in her dark blue eyes as she was covered in the years of dust that covered her old masters lab underneath the arcade he once owned.

Seeing Jet Bradley, Alan Bradley's muscular son work with Sam in moving the antiquated computer system made her freak a little. One of the things that had been done was to protect the Grid was to supply an external power source to the unit. Jet had done this with Sam's permission while distracted Quorra with a mineral errand. By the she had come back Sam and Jet had removed the drive and attached a power source to it Quorra had screamed, yelled, and swung a punch at Sam and Jet, had she possessed her Data Disk she would have tried to derezz them for their actions. It was like the night of the destruction of the City of the Isos all over again.

Seeing that she now had the hard drive from Flynn computer in her hands slowly spin as the remote power system helped keep the programs running made her stomach churn in fear. She swallowed often as she was afraid that moving the wrong way would damage any of the millions of programs that now rested in the ten fingers of her hands. Was this what it felt like being the All User that Flynn called God… this wasn't a power or a responsibility she wanted! How did Users cope with the strain to their minds of possessing this type of power? With that Quorra called out.

"Guys… could you all hurry up… holding this drive is scaring the crap out of me." Quorra said as she shook in fear trying to hold back her breath. The more she shook the more she feared that she was shaking programs out of windows of buildings. Sliding transports into crowds of individuals. Giant Grid Bugs flying to buildings. All sorts of things that the more she thought, the more she was scared to even to go further into the images that were flowing into her head.

"Quorra, relax some… The drive should handle itself okay… It has been running fine even through several Earthquakes in the area. So you shaking won't damage it. But dropping it will." With that Quorra stopped breathing and froze at Sam's worlds.

"Listen… How about I dig up that dive enclosure so Quorra doesn't have a meltdown holding it." With that Jet got up and walked over and pulled out a very large plastic box that was nearby him and opened it up and slid the drive and the battery powering it into the container. Quorra being relieved of her responsibility of holding the lives of so many Programs, promptly fainted to the floor right after the drive was secured in the containment box.

What neither Jet nor Sam had told her before passing out was that the box was the same kind used to transport live active drives that were collected the police and other federal authorities so that the data could be transferred for evidence collection. But Quorra didn't know that so passing out for her was the most human thing she could do.

* * *

"Sam... What the Hell is on that Drive?" Jet said as he moved and placed the drive enclosure on the floor so he could come and help Sam move Quorra out of the ancient hacker's lab and onto a couch sitting near an old edition of Space Invaders and a old air hockey table. "Quorra thought that it was going to explode." This was the point where Sam had to break it to his friend about what was on the drive.

"Jet... on that drive happens to be the last of my dad's research. And Quorra was like a father to her. Everything that she has ever learned, seen, and probably experienced is on that drive. Hell even information and life histories of everyone she knew before some bastard hunted down and killed them is sitting on that thing. You would freak too, if it was all you had left of your life before you had to flee from where you had once lived was sitting on a piece of metal about three inches wide." Sam said as he pulled out his phone. "The good news is, I did do a back up, but what is on that drive is the original stuff and with your mad skills of data retrieval I was hoping on giving Quorra some peace."

"Does Quorra know about the backup?" Jet said as Sam realized that Quorra assumed that was what he was doing with his old cell phone. Then he winced before slapping his palm against his forehead.

"Ah... Crap. I thought she knew." Sam realized that Quorra needed to know that little detail. Because she hadn't, had caused most of the trouble they had in moving the equipment out of lab.

"Well you better tell her that whatever was running on that drive has been moved to your phone." With that Quorra slowly awakened from her fainting spell and looked around to see that she was outside of Flynn's hacker's cave.

"SamFlynn..." Quorra worked hard to moisten her mouth to speak clearly. "...is... is the drive..." Quorra looked like she was the verge of a nervous breakdown. This is when Sam spoke up to keep her calm. The last thing they needed was Quorra going into hysterics again.

"Quorra... the drive is alright... I was able to copy and move the files and old programs to my phone's memory card, the night we came in here." Quorra looked worried. "Remember my phone?" Sam held up his phone. Quorra looked at it slowly then realized what Sam had done. That was when Quorra snapped up with a bolt.

"You mean the card that you had around your neck when we left here that you place in your bookshelf..." then she got hushed. "…back at your place?" Sam nodded. "Then... we are moving the drive here to..."

"Salvage the rest of my Dad's data on the Grid... Hopefully we can recover the programs that Clu tried to derezz slash delete off of the drive." Quorra swallowed as she now looked down to see the opened panel on the computer system that had been her life.

"Don't worry; I have the gear back at ENCOM for data retrieval. A couple of the IT guys owe me some favors in getting some drive scanner set up. So given the Palimpsestic levels of damage we should have all of the data or at least move of it back." Quorra swallowed hard.

"How about trying to retrieve any data of a group of programs called ISOs?" Quorra's heart jumped a beat hearing that there might be hope for bringing her people back from Sam's words. She looked at Jet with the hope that this User would do the impossible and restore what Clu2 had attempted to delete from existence.

"Well, I do enjoy a challenge?" Jet said grinning at Sam's friend. With Quorra watching as she realized that they would need to move the rest of the lab out just to begin the process of figuring out how to save of her home system and restore it to its former glory of her youth.

"Thanks JetBradley..." Jet grinned at this seeing that Quorra wasn't going to be suffering information overload with the moving of the elder Flynn's stuff.

"Well thank you QuorraIso..." was his reply... Quorra blushed at this seeing that Jet was humoring her by emulating her speech patterns in complementing her... "Well SamFlynn... We have a ray gun to move to the back of our rented truck." With this the two humans and the computer program moved to transport Kevin Flynn's lab back to ENCOM. In the end Quorra felt more comfortable being around Jet and learning some of the techniques that he would be using to retrieve the information off of the old Drives that they had found.

* * *

Dave Stutter got off of the back of the metal eagle along with Becky. Balthazar and Veronica got off the back the second metal bird. Dave swore that this type of travel wouldn't get old, but there would be one thing he would be investing in... A saddle... Dave ached as he stood up on the ground.

"Ow, ow, ow... leg cramps... Ug..." Dave groaned as he massaged his legs. That was when a backpack hit him. "Ouch..." Dave looked up to see Becky cringing at realizing what she had accidentally done with her backpack. But Dave smiled through it admiring the girl he had fallen in love with back in the fifth grade.

"Sorry Dave..." Becky said was stretching too, but this time in various yoga positions as her bag had been flying. Balthazar grinned at this seeing the young couple experience things that he had experienced back in youth and so full of love.

"Yes Dave... I too have the cramps... but do you see me complaining?" Balthazar's words seemed to hover for a moment as Dave got a taste of what the older Sorcerer's life reflected his rather colorful past.

"No Sir..." With that Veronica came over and with a grin hugged her love.

"I believe at his age that you often complained often about all of the riding we did with our Master." Veronica's words caught Dave off guard... But he was glad that there was someone who would agree with how he was feeling at this time.

"Okay... Well I have a few centuries to earn my stick." Becky chuckled at this as did Balthazar who understood where he was coming from.

"Well we have a grave to see." With that they walked into the graveyard to find the grave of Kevin Flynn.

* * *

Balthazar stood over the Grave of Kevin Flynn and used his spells to view the past. Other than the occasional small group of individuals, who were at the ceremony, the people he walked over to watch the small group that consisted of Sam Flynn and the woman with the short-cut black hair that was standing next to him.

Throughout most of the ceremony Sam and her seemed to be close, but there was a feeling that there was something off with the girl he was with. This was when Becky and Dave walked into the scene. Becky who was new to the world of magic was wearing a bracelet that allowed her to see the energies that magic users such as Dave, Balthazar and Veronica used; though seeing the young woman Sam Flynn was with well to Becky and the other it looked like she had been soaking in the stuff.

"Okay, that's new?" Balthazar said examining the young woman. This is when everyone started to listen into the conversation.

"SamFlynn..." the woman spoke softly but with sadness in her voice. "I know that there is supposed to be some sort of speech given by you, but why did you use many of my words of Master Flynn?"

Sam sighed and spoke softly, "You knew my Dad the longest and I think that he wouldn't have minded given that we are now living together and we're family." The dark haired woman nodded. "I do not mind, but I feel that I need to say something more." With that she moved forward and knelt by the grave. "I will miss you KevinFlynn, you were there at my darkest hour and you showed me the light. Gave me hope in a world that had lost it. I will do my best in fulfilling my destiny along with your son in your memory.

"Thank you Quorra, I think my... I think Flynn would be proud of those words." With that the woman named Quorra moved back over to Sam Flynn.

After a while the ceremony cranked on until it ended. As everyone was leaving this is when two people whom Becky identified as being Alan Bradley and his son Jet. It didn't take too long for them to realize that what they were talking about was Kevin Flynn's old lab.

"It looks like the answers we are looking for might be in Flynn's old research." Dave said as he watched the couple get on the back of a vintage early eighties motorcycle.

"Yes…" Balthazar realizing that it was time for a chase. He had the feeling that it was going to be a good one.

* * *

Let me know what you think so far of this story, I am throwing little hints here and there of what is to come, but I am accepting ideas for future chapters.

Jet Bradley was from the Tron 2.0 game from a few years back. I know that Jet is not seen as being cannon by the diehard fans, but I wanted to do this link between Alan's family and Kevin.

Please post a review below.

Hearns


	3. Chapter 2

Magic and Programs

Chapter 2:

* * *

Sam Flynn sat behind his desk at ENCOM, though he had gotten rid of the one that ENCOM had given him, he had decided to go with one that felt organic. This for him made sense, though Quorra had loved the fact that his computer interface looked like it had come out of Jules Vern. Underneath all of that wood existed what some of his coworkers had called his Firefly interface. But considering that it was running a version of SuperFlynn 1.0 and it was opened source which allowed for advancements to be done to the system that made ENCOM OS 12 look obsolete. This was part of Sam's plan to create innovation. The Board after he had worked with Alan kicked the Golden Parachute ass wipes out, had realized that he was fixing problems on the system by cutting the dead weight off that wasn't producing. Though hearing that a few had taken the funds they had earned over the years and were causing most of the mess had some of their assets frozen for some embezzlement clause in their original contract. Well considering the economy, Sam had supporters among the Beer and Bread folks on the staff.

After the cleaning of house, Sam went head hunting for some talents among the open-source community as well from firms such as Yahoo, and AOL who were laying people off who could code like mad but didn't have the creative freedom to do so. Hell a few folks from Google and Facebook had jumped ship to come to work for ENCOM. Then he found some gems in the rough that would become the New Blood. Hell he even searched the boards of the old Flynn Lives Sites for those coders who had stumbled into some of Kevin Flynn's old archives about the Grid.

Some at the company had called Sam the man who was taking the Company back to its roots and the rumors were flying that Quorra was the Princess Leah/Padawan of Kevin Flynn. Something that with each passing day either got confirmed or denied by the scuttlebutt of the water cooler. But as Sam got used to things and the fact that Quorra had started to delve into some of the records, she had seen hope as with the funds they would be able to heal the world.

That was when his system buzzed as Jet got on the video-chat to his office.

"Sam... The data that you asked me to retrieve from your old man's hard drive is showing some unique software." With that Sam stopped cold as he slid back over to the full desk screen.

"Jet what did you find?" Sam was interested as he realized that whatever Jet had found would be very important to both him and Quorra.

"Well there are thousands of programs that looked like they had been repurposed, right before some sort of system glitch deleted them." His Father's last act to stop Clu's army... If they could be saved.

"Jet... How many programs are we talking about here?" Jet was taken aback by this.

"We are talking a few thousand programs as well as several programs that seem to have some sort of weird coding the looks almost organic." The Isos...

"How many of these other Organic programs did you find?"

"Sam... We are talking at least maybe a few hundred." Sam licked his lips... He needed to tell Quorra.

"Jet, I need you to start working on seeing if you can revert these programs back to the last state they were in before they were... "Sam had to say this right or innocent programs would be hurt. "I need you to restore the organic programs you have found and revert back the repurposed ones...also I want you to find any copy of a Program called Clu spelled C L U and delete the Hell out of it. My dad had a lot of problems with that one program due to it causing a lot of trouble with his software. "

"Is there any reason you want me to do it that way?" Jet was curious... He would have to tell Jet, Alan, Laura about Quorra about the Grid some point in the future.

"It is important that you do it that way... Someone compromised my Dad's old system and did some major damage so putting things back would be useful to help find out what he was working on." Sam was telling Jet a half-truth there, but this was setting things right for the Grid.

"Okay man... I am not going to argue with you there." Jet said as he started working on the Grid.

* * *

Anon awoke on the street. He hurt... as he... Quorra... the stolen Recognizer it had crashed... he had been crushed underneath it... where was Quorra? He had seen her look at him during his last moments before he… He looked around to see another program. A female program in all white... she was moaning in pain like him as she was trying to get her bearings around her. He got up and moved over to her with great pain as his systems started to reboot as it started raining data water.

"Are you alright?" The moment the program opened her eyes, she was screaming... The pure look of terror that was on her face as her yellow/white hair looked disheveled but showed that she was from one of the higher status parts of the city.

"Don't... Don't derezz me? We told you where Flynn and he son were heading. You have his disk..." With that Anon dropped his mask. The face underneath it looked different from his initial log-on, probably due to the reboot of his systems but this program looked like she was confessing to selling out the User Flynn.

"Sam?" She was getting wet as she was swallowing hard as she looked at Anon in recognition of some program that she had known.

"Who is Sam?" Anon got the feeling that they needed to talk somewhere else and was dryer. "What disk? You have seen Flynn!" With that he pulled the other Program up as he looked for a place to take shelter in. That was when a younger Program came out of a building who looked only to be a few cycles old. Her short cut blond hair and small figure reflected her blue patterning of her design.

"Hey... if you want to continue getting wet, you better come in here. The rain isn't going to stop for a while or so." With that the two Programs entered a structure called Flynn's. There were a lot of questions to be answered it seemed to be the safest place to be for the time being given how the neighborhood looked.

* * *

Balthazar had used his magic to fire up a biometric spell to start tracking the strange woman that had been with Sam Flynn. That was when the storm started to form around downtown LA. Well flying by metal bird during the day would raise some questions. For the time being it was time to do some research and find a place to stay at. With that they rented a hotel room at one of Balthazar's old haunts from when he lived on the West Coast back in the 1950s. The Golden Dragon before they would go and rent a car to head downtown.

* * *

Quorra who had been watching the weather outside saw that there were clouds forming over the ENCOM building. It wouldn't be strange except for the fact that the news station in the cafeteria which gave weather updates every eight minutes of the Los Angeles area showed that the weather front was centered right over the ENCOM building. A weather phenomenon like this wasn't natural, even on the Grid. So what type of force would be able to create a localized storm over a specific area?

Had some User developed the technology to control weather on this scale?

Given what Quorra had learned about weather and Global Warming; then to do something like this would have to require a lot of power just to start it and guide it to this location. To control weather on this scale it would have to be localized to some degree without having to influence all the weather around the world. But from where would you place the power systems needed to control weather like this? Was the question digging into the back of Quorra's mind.

She needed to tell Sam about this. If someone had gained the powers of a User in this world and was pointed the source of this at ENCOM… then this would bad for the human race as a whole. With that she started her search for Sam in the ENCOM building, knowing he was going through the various departments today and would be hard to pin down given that many of the programmers were doing the do or die to keep their jobs. The Games on the Grid were less bloody than these job reviews.

* * *

In the weeks since Anon had come back on the Grid, he and a few other programs had started to call Flynn's home. It has been strange living in the former User's layer, but given that it had offered for the Rerezzed programs to come a place to stay until they could track down those they loved and it was getting a little crowded.

There had been stories coming around that Flynn himself had fought Clu and defeated him. That he had a Son named Sam... That part was true due to Gem the gladiatorial armorer program that he had met right after he had been rerezzed with her. Gen had been spilling the truth of betraying the young User and his Father to Clu's forces beside the fabled Zuse for control of the city. The realization of the betrayal had forced her to come to terms that she chosen the wrong side by working with Zuse. But seeing that she had been saved by probably Flynn, she had seen every moment alive as a course in redemption. She swore that the User that had brought her back along with the others she would serve to her last moment of her existence due to her participation in the Grid Games and the innocent programs that she had armored to head to their deaths.

Anon had seen several programs who had been returned to their earlier repurposed forms had understood that Clu had been creating an army to invade someplace. But the details were a little fuzzy except for the fact that they would be invading some sphere called Earth... Other than that things started to get vague. Even with the first Iso showing up with a shocked look his face as he remembered the process in which he was being derezzed.

Then later another female Iso showed up, but she like the first Iso had no memories except for the moment she had been taken offline except for trying to guard a young Basic who had been helping her in trying to organize a resistance against Clu. It had been the same program that had brought him and Gem into this former User's base to take shelter from the rain those many computational cycles ago. At least whatever fate had in store for them, it wasn't without a sense of familiarity in helping those who it needed in the future.

These Isos had stated that they had felt the power of something reaching into the system and pulling them back. Anon knew that probably a very powerful User had done this but why?

It was as if whatever was going on, rebuilding the Grid and the Tron system had been their main concern. That repairing the damage Clu had done was in relation to this Earth system.

What was on the Earth System that Clu and wanted so much that he had created an army to conquer it, but for a reason that no one remembered due to them being restored.

If it was a threat, then... Whatever would be coming from there would have to be dealt with some serious warriors to protect the system form it.

He would sure need some guidance from a User about this time. He had more questions than answers to what he was discovering about what had happened to the Grid. He for the first time decided that visiting an IO tower might get him the answers he needed.

These Programs needed guidance and a leader, for some strange reason fate had chosen him to take that role. One that he hoped that he was ready for because he felt that there would be trouble arising soon.

* * *

Anon was from the Tron Evolution game and putting him into the story felt right in that I needed a character whom Quorra knew and would be watching the system as Jet rebuilds it. Gem... Well she needs to have some more fics and her realizing that she and Zuse had chosen the wrong side right before the End of Line Club blew starts off as my way of showing a character that is in the process of redemption.

Let me know what you think so far, please review.


	4. Chapter 3

I would like to thank those individuals who posted a review to my story.

Hopefully in this chapter you all will start to see where I am going with the storyline.

Well on with the story.

* * *

Chapter 3:

* * *

Quorra was walking through the hallways of ENCOM looking for Sam but along the way she ran unto her User/Human friend Anna Hildy. Quorra had been wary of the woman's red hair thinking that she was a member of this world's version of the Black Guard or a soldier of the MCP of ancient times. But seeing that Quorra had been afraid of her had tried to strike up a conversation with her and Quorra had said that she had a bad experience with someone with red hair. Anna had said that she had been a few bad relationships too with a guy named Brad. So it took a moment for Quorra to understand where Anna was coming from and she chuckled at it. With that Anna had opened up with Quorra and the two had become friends. Though the occasional reference to someone named Ariel form the occasional co-worker had made Quorra curious about the reference. It was only later and talking with Sam that it was a reference to an animated half human half fish girl who wished to walk on dry land.

Quorra the avid researcher she was studied every text she could find and realized that this nickname Anna hand to this hybrid sea creature bore many similarities to her own life. Though after a while Quorra had learned that her nickname in the office was "The Padawan" from Anna, which resulted in a movie marathon one weekend with six movies on the cable channel Spike for her to figure out what that meant. Though the rumor mill went wild when Quorra was caught meditating on top of the table in the head boardroom. But it was her way of finding a center during the move of all of Flynn's old stuff from the arcade.

But now as she moved through the hallways tracking down Sam with Anna at her side, she felt something familiar. With that she stopped.

"Anna do you feel that?" Quorra said holding a hand up stopping Anna in her path.

"Feel what?" Anna said as she started to realize that her hair was starting to frizz up. "Whoa... it feels like there is a charge around here." A moment later Quorra was feeling her left arm start to itch. It wouldn't have been anything noticeable given that humans occasionally itch but this was starting to feel like... Quorra gritted her teeth as her arm started to feel like it was on the verge of being ripped off and be derezzed.

"Quorra?" Anna rushed over to help her friend as Quorra started screaming. Quorra started ripping at the long sleeve shirt she was wearing as the pain started to get worse. That was when she looked down to see that her ISO glyph was the source of her pain. It was glowing red hot. Anna reached over and tried to ease the pain by bandaging the mark but considering that it set the cloth on fire. Anna ran over and grabbed and nearby fire extinguisher and hosed Quorra's arm in fire retardant. The pain had ended, but Quorra looked at her arm before she has passed out. The words "FOUND YOU" bubbled in the foam before her Iso glyph hid itself as normal flesh tones as a white tattoo as the rest of her skin turned red from the damage.

Anna quickly called 911 and said that someone had tried to burn her friend.

This was way outside of the 165 an hour she was being paid.

* * *

Sam Flynn rushed to meet Quorra as she was coming out of the elevator as she was being transported on the gurney to the ambulance waiting outside. Quorra looked okay from Sam, but considering that she had a rather nasty burn on her arm. It took Sam a moment to realize which arm it was. It had been the arm that bore her Iso glyph. No wonder Quorra had looked away from him. After a lifetime of hiding, to be exposed like this was like every fear she had exploding to the surface. Quorra knew that she had been caught, but Sam knew that things were about to get worse if he didn't handle things right.

There were a lot of things that Sam didn't want to explain to the doctors. Like Quorra wasn't from this world. Hell Sam wasn't sure Quorra had human blood or bones or... whatever. The sooner Quorra wars safe and away from those who wished to use her as a lab rat the better.

Seeing that Anna was with Quorra had calmed Sam down a little. Quorra had been talking about when they had gotten the Grid up and running after cleaning up the mess Clu had left through his reign of terror that they would bring Jet, Alan, and Anna along with them. Quorra wanted to be open for once to another person. Talk female stuff, connect in ways that Sam couldn't exactly do, mostly in relation of female urges.

"Anna, what happened?" Sam called out as Quorra's friend as she stuck next to the Iso.

"I don't know... One moment we are looking for you, the next Quorra is screaming in pain right before her arm catches fire." Sam stopped cold when he heard that. Crap he knew that he had pissed some people off, but to target Quorra...

This was worse than he thought.

"Anna, stay close to Quorra." The last thing that Sam needed was another attempt on Quorra's life. With that he got on the phone to Jet. "Jet I need you to secure the hard drive that you have been working on and place it somewhere safe where if anyone tries to get to it they will have to work at getting at.". Jet wondered what was up.

"Hey man... I am in the process of doing a drive clone. What is so important that you want me to drop everything on short notice?" This is where Sam decided to drop the bombshell.

"Quorra just got attacked and they are in the process of taking her to the hospital." Sam didn't have to say anymore.

"Gotcha man... I'm in the middle of the last of the data so I'll meet you down at the hospital ASAP when I finish here."

"Okay, because I have the feeling I am going to need a wheel man if and when thing get hairy." Sam said realizing that he needed to swing by his office and pick up some climbing gear, his parachute, and a few other small things. But one thing Sam didn't want to carry, but needed to grab was a flair gun. Man he hated carrying that thing around.

* * *

Balthazar pulled the car up to the ENCOM building to see some craziness taking place as an ambulance was parked nearby along with the police and a fire truck.

"What the hell is going on here?" Dave said looking through the window at the commotion.

"Looks like something happened in the building." Veronica said getting out of the horseless carriage they had rented.

"Yeah, it looks like a Goddamn nine alarm fire." Becky said as Balthazar decided to do his Cop Morph thing that Dave had talked about so much during their Paris Breakfast. Instead of a NYPD uniform, Balthazar changed into a LAPD uniform and walked over to Becky.

"Becky, I need you to use that Digital Camera you have on you and start taking pictures." Balthazar said coming up with a plan. "Veronica, I need you to change into one of the EMS workers..." Veronica gave a confused look on her face as Balthazar realized she didn't understand the modern term he had used. "...the healers who are moving around in the light blue shirts." Veronica now understood as she altered her appearance to one of the emergency responders and started to blend in with the crowd. "Dave, I need you to blend in with the staff and find out what was happening inside, hopefully we can learn a bit more about Sam Flynn and Quorra Iso before we meet them, and keep in touch by phone if you learn anything." With that Balthazar turned towards Becky whose appearance started to look like a Paparazzi. "Let's do the distraction Becky." With that Balthazar let Becky start taking photos as Becky grinned as she did her best impression of one of the TMZ press guys she had seen on TV. Annoying and in your face.

The best thing about magic was the misdirection and moving around in plain sight.

With that the four of them split up to their individual assignments.

"Hey you bottom feeder... Get out of here!" Balthazar said as the officer in charge started to march over to him and Becky. To their commotion Veronica and Dave were able to slip through the crowd and enter the building. Soon Balthazar would learn about what happened at ENCOM from the officer in charge with Becky's help.

* * *

Outside of ENCOM alone figure sat behind on a park bench watching the scene unfold. Taking out his cell phone he dialed a preprogrammed number and started to speak into it.

My Liege... Balthazar Blake is here.

Did he see you?

No my Liege, he is in the process of entering the offices of ENCOM to discover what has happened.

Good. Things are on track. We cannot have him find the Prime Merlinian, the Apprentice of the White Mage, and the Warriors of Light.

Sir, Quorra Iso was able to fend off the attack from the Magically enhanced Tech that I placed in the ENCOM offices with ease. Are you sure that she is the Prime Merlinian?

Was she wearing Merlin's Ring?

No my Liege...

Then she is. Only the Prime Merlinian would be able to fend off an attack like that and she is practically oozing magic. Next to being born in a world forged of nothing but magic. I wouldn't believe that anyone would be alive after that.

But my Liege... The signs have said that Morgana has died, and...

Say one more word and I shall strike you down where you stand.

Yes my Liege...

Stay where you are and observe. Return only when I send word for you.

I shall obey my Liege.

With that the individual ended the call and continued to watch the scene outside of ENCOM Tower.

* * *

Anon watched as several of the warriors from the Games stood around him. These were not the blood sport warriors that Clu had brought forth to the arena in the last few cycles such as Rinzler.

These were the warriors from the Golden Age of the Grid. Where programs fought and won for pride and not for turning their opponents to Pixels. Where no one was Derezzed for losing a match because it suited the spectators desire for graphic pixlelust for gore and death.

Several of these warriors were among the returned and seeing that Anon needed help decided to aid him in fixing the system. They were from various cities and knew how to fight, something that Anon desperately needed given some of the information that he had been gathering from the other survivors that the opportunists were trying to take advantage of programs in this power vacuum that had been created by the Death of Clu.

This is when Longshot one of programs that had had been helping out in restore the system came forward to speak.

"Anon. we found leads on one of Clu's commanders. Jarvis." Longshot said as his slender frame reflected the quickness he had during the Disk Wars events. Longshot had become team captain of the Arjia city Disk Club through his leadership and clout with his fans, but Longshot had become one of Clu's enemies when he started protecting ISOs and hiding them from Clu's forces. He had gotten derezzed by Clu himself, but before them had taken out several of Clu's forces before becoming a martyr to the Free Programs of the Grid. Longshot's presence since his return had garnered Anon support among the various parts of the Grid and allowed an information network to be created.

From that newly formed information network they had tracked down many of Clu's supporters and had brought them to justice for their crimes. Now with this lead on Jarvis they would finally get a handle on what Clu was after on the Earth System.

"That is good... How many forces does he have at his disposal?" Anon spoke as he looked at the large picture of Jarvis that was posted to the wall.

"From what we have learned so far is that he has been lying low." Longshot said moving over to the screen and tapping it to bring up some footage. "It is said that he has been trying to avoid anyone recognizing him, but he has been lately showing up at a few I/O Towers spouting things about the Users."

"So he has been denying that they exist." Anon spoke looking at the image.

"Well the exact opposite. The guy has been practically flogging himself and states that he has seen the power of the Users, they he begs for their mercy." Anon looked shocked.

"What?" he exclaimed.

"You heard me, his has been prostrating himself to the Users." Longshot chuckled. "By Delete Key, he has been showing up so often that several of the Guardians have had us on call to handle the crowds lately."

"You're joking me." Anon's sarcasm was met with a chuckle by Longshot.

"I am not... By the User. I have several Warriors checking out where Jarvis might be hiding. Though there is one story that he had found Flynn's secret layer." With that Longshot reached into the pocket of his jacket. "Then there is this..." In Longshot's hand he had pulled out a malformed highly reflective silver sphere with a broken stub at the top. Anon took it into his hand and studied it. "Jarvis gave this to an ISO girl and begged forgiveness for his past actions on his knees."

"Do you know what this item is?" Anon spoke up slowly looking at his reflection in it.

"No, I do not. But whatever it represents pretty much pissed Clu off when he looked at it, and threw a bowl full of these across the room. Jarvis stated that it was an item from the world of the Users." Longshot looked at the item in Anon's hands.

"There are more of these?" Anon looked worried.

"Yeah... a few... mostly given to ISOs though. I have had one of the code crunchers take a look at it and they seem to be made up of some strange data matter. But none of as they can tell is dangerous."

"So... whatever is going on with him might state that he is scared or..." Anon started to think.

"Or whatever he learned about Clu's plans has driven him to seek out the Users as some sort penitence for whatever pertains to Earth and fear that Whatever is there might decide to come here." This got Anon's attention.

"You were going to take a few of your team out to stakeout one of the Towers." Anon watched as several of Longshot's team watched his body language for what to do next.

"We were, and I was thinking about you joining us. Maybe you can get Javis to state what he is so scared of that drove him to seek religion, and since you look like this User SamFlynn?" Anon understood.

"Well, might as well get it from the Program's mouth." Anon grinned seeing that Longshot's team cheered at this.

* * *

Let me know what you think of the chapter so far.

I have for the most part are playing with the idea that the Morganians don't know who the Prime Merlinian looks like, so with Morgana's death they are assuming based on the facts and the legends they have is that it would have to be a Magic user so powerful that they don't need a lens to focus their powers through. So since Quorra is soaking in energy, they think it is her.

This is a little fact I am clearing up here at the end of this chapter. But it also provides Dave some clearance to move around in future chapters.

In future chapters, I plan to use this to both character's advantages and disadvantages.

Also, I have been doing a ton of research on Tron Evolution as well looking through the Tron Wiki for story ideas.

I am currently accepting ideas names for Longshot's team for the next chapter.

Here is the list of character descriptions.

A male Light Cycle racer -

A female Light Cycle Racer -

A female Iso Disk Player – Rookie of the group.

A Male Jai Alai Player (This is a reference to the first Game Flynn is forced to participate in on the game grid)

A Male off-road light cycle racer -

A female sports armorer –

Please e-mail character names to me or PM me through FF .net

Hearns


	5. Chapter 4

Sorry about taking so long to write this chapter but my Mom's IPad decided to eat the first three paragraphs of it and I had to retype them.

Also I would like to Thank Sabi to responding to my request last chapter about helping me name several members of Longshot's team that will be appearing next chapter.

This chapter has a few sex references to it, so it is pushing the edge of PG-13 here.

So everyone, get comfortable, set your screen resolution where your eyes won't hurt and font size to where you like and sit back.

As I quote one of my favorite Podcasts: "It's Story time."

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

Dave Stuter was using some of his recently learned spells that Balthazar had taught him over the last few weeks. Several of which followed some basic rules in retrieving information from the environment. The neat thing about this was that several of these lessons Dave had used in his physics classes. One of them was the Pompeii rock trick. This was the same one Balthazar had used at Kevin Flynn's grave to hear the voices of everyone at the funeral.

Dave had been impressed by how sound could be captured though the semi heated surface of the stone. He had heard of the trick being done with insect traps back in the fifties but to see it done by Balthazar with his skills to hit the stone with a compressed energy wave of controlled electrical plasma to trick the molecules of the rock to vibrate their magnetic resonance to play back the sound. Well it was like having a tape recording of the events without having to sneak in and get creamed by some bodyguard. Now with the visuals of the event, that was just magnifying of the radiation of light waves impact against the surface of the matter and calculating the decay rate and having it bounce back with similar portions of the light spectrum to produce a representative copy of the lit events in the past. Seeing how this worked, Dave had spent hours learning how to do it while at the Golden Dragon Hotel.

The results were rather interesting in that Dave had been able to get some playback of the past. Though seeing a morbidly obese man in his fifties with terminal back hair issues cover himself in his sport teams colors and wearing nothing but a thong would be providing him with plenty of nightmares for years to come. Why couldn't it have been a cheerleader or the members of a high school swim team play spin the bottle? Well he had learned the spell, and Becky had the picture of the shocked look on his face of him seeing the near naked fat dude as she watched him practice. With that out of the way, Dave used his powers to do the same spell of a pair of sunglasses so he wouldn't raise too much attention moving around the offices of ENCOM.

In as so far Dave had seen five Nerf Wars, some guy stealing popcorn like it as his religion, a pair of co workers making out and another pair doing well... At least Dave knew about when the next baby shower was going to be held for these two. Then Dave hit the jackpot.

A red headed young woman with long hair and a taste in clothing that made her look like she had come out of a western themed clothing store was walking down the hall with her friend. Hell, she even wearing cowboy boots. But Dave was more interested in the woman walking next to that looked she had come out of an episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars. Between the woman's bob cut hair, black form-fitting clothing and exotic looking eyes, Dave swore that her holding a light saber wouldn't be out of place in this woman's hands.

This was Dave started to listen to the conversation between the two women.

"Quorra, I know that you and Sam have been living together since his old man died...". The red head said as she walked next to the enigma that was Quorra Iso, "…but I get the feeling that you are holding back some great big secret that you want to tell the world." Quorra paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Anna... I know that I haven't been completely open with you, but there are things I need to help Sam with before I can reveal a lot more about my past. I mean that hard drive that Jet is working on contains some of my life history and without it I think that you wouldn't understand what I would be talking about." Quorra paused for a moment. "I mean there are things that you need to truly see that I hope that you can see me for who I am."

"Well, it ain't like you were sleeping with Kevin Flynn?" Quorra stopped cold.

"No I have not slept with Kevin Flynn, Sam on the other hand... But not his father... Hell when his Dad he found me, the first few times I was able to sleep was in a room that his wife had built in his Mountain retreat before she had died." There was a long pause.

"So you are sleeping with the boss aren't you?" Anna nudged Quorra into the side.

Well this was getting very interesting, Kevin Flynn's hard drive contained information about Quorra that she wanted to get back for personal reasons, and that she was in a relationship with Sam Flynn.

"Yeah..." Quorra did her best to impersonation of a California girl as they continued to walk. "Mostly the sleeping part is due to the fact that he has only one bed at his place and that after the first few nights of him sleeping on the couch I decided that having him sleep in the bed with me would help him rest better."

"So what is he like?" Anna said wanting details.

"Restful, but he does this little roll thing while he sleeps. It's not a bad thing, but he does get a little spooked by me sleeping with my head on his chest. I love the sound of his heartbeat, how rhythmic it is."

"I mean how is he like in bed?" Anna was digging for details on Sam Flynn's sexual prowess.

"I just told you." Quorra said as she started to check the rooms down a particular hallway.

"Quorra... I swear that you take things too literally. Okay... I'll put it this way. Have you ever had sexual relations or sexual intercourse with one Sam Flynn." Anna decided to be blunt.

"Yes... We had sexual relations in the shower last night. I was nervous; Sam just worked with me and said that if at any time that I felt uncomfortable he would stop. Though I found the experience quite interesting, but the sudden introduction cold water after fifteen minutes did force us out. By that time most of the sexual act was completed, through drying off provided us time to do what is known as cuddling, mostly because i was cold and was on the early stages of hypothermia and the skin on skin contact did sooth our thermal depletion levels and allowed our bodies to return to their normal temperatures."

"Well... Shower Sex... And cuddling..." Anna nudged Quorra in the side. "So the Padawan is no longer a virgin."

"Anna... might I ask that your sexual relations with any potential suitors that I might know of." Anna stopped cold.

"Hey, you know that I have been eyeing Jet." Quorra grinned.

"Ah... So you are the reason why Jet wants to change the subject whenever you come into the room."

"Wait... Jet Changes the subject..." Anna started to catch up with Quorra. "About what?"

"I believe it is called building up the nerve to ask a girl out." Quorra said grinning.

"Wait... Jet has the Hots for me?" About this time Dave was on the verge of screaming...

"Good Grief... I have walked into the ENCOM office politics chick flick!"

"Please be my Wing Chick Quorra..." With that Quorra studied the reactions of her friend like a robot, or an alien. This was creeping Dave out.

"You define Wing Chick as someone who helps introduce one to a potential suitor." Quorra shrugged. "From what I have known is that the most optimum place for this courting to occur would be a ball or a party, as stated in Victorian literature." There was a long pause then. "Would you wish me to invite your parents and his to this celebration for the relationship to be formalized or would a large dinner held at some grand estate do?"

"Quorra!" Anna raced after being struck still by this. "I don't get you... It is like you are some sort of Victorian Courting pro, while at other times, you are like... some alien or a five year old trapped in the body of an adult woman."

"I am just stating from what I have read in my Youth... I did read a lot of Victorian Novels, so I am not up so much on the modern terminology. But I will aid you in finding love."

"Okay, Quorra Iso... Where shall we..."

"Anna do you feel that?" With that Dave started to see the events unfold that lead to Quorra being attacked.

What he saw as that Quorra was reacting to the energies before her friend did, then he saw Quorra's tattoo. It was the strange glyph that was on Kevin Flynn's grave and it was glowing. Dave needed to show this to the others. So he cast an illusion shield to provide him some privacy so that Dave could pull out his camera phone and film how this scene would unfold as he started to project it into real world 3D. Then this is when Dave started to get hot... really fast.

Dave backed up the image of Quorra and her friend walking down the hallway and right about the time when Quorra started to sense something and her friend's hair started to get frizzy. Dave started to trace where the source of the heat was coming from as Quorra started screaming then seeing the words "Found You" appear in the fire retardant foam; Dave felt another wave form as he reached out and... The energy wave was coming from the funky cameras in this place... The camera... Dave dissipated the image, but the beam was continuing on him. Quorra had been attacked by a microwave weapon and Dave had walked right into setting it off again. That was when an overweight African American Security guard started to come running down the hallway, somehow the guy had been able to see through the barrier or... The other cameras... Dave kicked himself... This was when the guy hit the beam and started hurting... Realizing Dave had to do something before this man got killed; he fired off an energy bolt from his hand but crossed with an illusion to make it look like Dave had fired a weapon at the Camera.

The unit exploded from the blast and Dave rushed over to tend to the man as other officers who were in the building started to flood in.

"I think whatever attacked that employee earlier went off again." Dave said as he tended to the man in his arms. "I think it was some sort of microwave or heat gun?" Dave said as a call was placed in.

"Thank you... for helping..." The man said looking up at Dave. "Did Sam bring you in to investigate the..." The man didn't finish his sentence as the EMTs arrived to tend to the burns on the back of the Man's head. Dave traced the pattern of one of the Merlinan order glyphs on the wall with a marker that had matched one of the symbols on Kevin Flynn's grave. Hopefully this Quorra girl would get the message that there were others out there who were like her mentor Flynn and they were with her. Then Dave decided it was time to disappear through the front door.

* * *

Veronica had passed herself as one of the healers and traveled in the motorized carriage carrying the young woman to a cathedral of healing called a Hospital. Throughout most of the journey, the young woman Quorra had been sedated with medicines and placed into a twilight sleep to allow her to sleep through most of the pain. As they rolled into the emergency doorway to the healing center Victoria kept herself masked to allow herself to stick to the young woman. It took a little while for the healers to do their jobs and place some bandages and healing ointments on the burn injury and let the young woman rest.

Using this time Veronica decided to use a spell to look into this woman's dreams and her mind.

What Veronica saw was strange even for her coming to this time.

She saw a world laced in darkness, where light seemed to outline buildings and creatures... Even was used to highlight patterns on clothing.

She saw Quorra... Some force had forged her from the land itself and... Others... There were a complete people of others like herself. Then... the walk through the wilderness.

Veronica saw them meet three individuals. One of them was Flynn and a double, Clu. And warrior with a T symbol on his armor.

There was social conflict, a war... massacre covered up as the search for a plague...

This girl had learned the truth... A warrior had saved her life before... The image didn't make sense... faded out of existence as his life force faded away.

Last of her Kind... Near Death... Saved by Flynn, the evil one had placed him on the run... Clu... Flynn's double was named Clu...

Nursed back to health... Safety... Doorway closed... No escape...

Earth... Sunrises... Green, life... She was told stories of this world... Longed to be here.. Live here...

Flynn said... Missed his son Sam...

Sam... Found way in... Hope... New Person...

Much Knowledge... Stop Clu... No... Must remove self from equation...

World of the Users... Like Flynn... Sam... Clu was going to invade...

Must Stop... Get back Flynn's Disk... it is the key...

The Doorway... Flynn and Clu battling... Flynn using his powers to pull Clu into himself.

Floor... New world... Sam... Scared...

The Sun... So Much Light... Beauty... Home...

Veronica now understood Quorra wasn't from this world; she was from a different place and land.

Flynn had done his best to teach her about this world, he wanted to see if she could use the magic that she had in her blood to cure diseases. That was when Veronica understood that like her, this girl was trying her best to fit into this strange new world they had found themselves in.

This was when the girl slowly awakened and looked up into Victoria's eyes. She grinned weakly and relaxed some seeing Veronica use her powers on the girl.

"User…" With that the girl went to sleep in her eyes knowing that she was safe. The word didn't just mean someone who used magic, as Veronica had learned from the girl's memories, but a sign of reference for someone who had the power to protect and save the souls of those in despair.

* * *

Sam Flynn knew that if anything happened to Quorra, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. Between the flair gun that Sam had in his pocket, Sam knew that on the weapon charges alone would pretty much destroy any chance of him keeping his Father's company. Keeping Quorra safe… Was his father's last wish… His dying wish…

Quorra who at first saw him as being an enigma started to understand him as someone who started to care about her.

Hell the night before, Quorra had lost her virginity to him. It felt a little strange for the both of them. But between the both of them, Sam didn't know who was more nervous. But for Quorra standing there in before him naked… Sam swallowed. No wonder he had suggested that they do the sex shower thing, partially to ease himself onto handling Quorra's desire to experiment with human sexuality and give Quorra a safe way to get to know her body. Maybe she was worried that her inexperience in human anatomy would hurt them both. But to both of their surprise the experience had been fun. Though a little tense when Sam had broken Quorra's Hymen, but like all things for Quorra every experience of this world was something to be cherished as she held on leaving a few bruises on his arms from the brief moment of pain she had experience by her gripping onto him so hard. Then later Quorra stated she was sorry about hurting him, Sam and soothed her fears by stating that he was more afraid of hurting her. With that both understood and they kissed.

Sam felt like there was an electric feel about her as they kissed, like she was full of energy and like any energy to anyone who had studied physics could transform from one state to another without being destroyed by it. Which was the basis of Quorra's strength in both her birth world and her adopted one. But during all of this sexual exploration, Quorra had been a little nervous about showing some of her markings that she had been born with.

On the grid these markings would have glowed and stated that she was different from all other programs on the Grid. But here they were just white tattoos which made her look even more exotic as he traced several of the lines on her body. For Quorra seeing that he had not markings on his body made her curious as she touched his naked body as well. Though, she did find that tender spot on his shoulder blades where had done that crazy base jump that went wrong from ENCOM tower as he did find that sensitive spot where her arm had been regrown during the Train ride.

After being chased out of the shower when the hot water had run out, and Quorra nearly suffering from hypothermia from her shivering, the two had held onto each other curled up in his loft's bed together.

But between the adventure on the Grid and off and several icepacks later over the successive weeks to treat their injures after coming to the real world. Sam had connected with people around him more. For Quorra those first few days of learning to get around required them to speak of stories of both their pasts that their mentor/savior/Father Kevin Flynn had told them.

The story of the Great Walk of the Isos through the wilderness of the Grid fascinated him as did his stories of Sam's first street race. Surviving their battles, their scars, their fears, their losses, through it their strengths showed.

Now walking into the medical center where Quorra was being tended to, Sam feared the worse as he walked in to check in at the lobby, kicking himself mentally for not being there right at that moment for her.

The waiting room was full of people, but outside of it stood Anna. Anna was doing her best to state what she knew of Quorra as the forms needed to be filled out. So far Sam didn't know if Quorra had any allergies to any of the medications they would be giving her. So far the doctor had said that she had received a flash burn from something electrical, but from what they didn't know.

There had been a long pause as Sam stated for the first time openly and with Anna's confirmation that Sam and Quorra had been dating. Sam us unsure how Anna had gotten that out of Quorra, but knew it was something that females, no matter their species were able to talk about sex. Then things started to get worrisome again.

Another call had been made when another attack was reported at ENCOM. When they wheeled the man into the emergency room.

Sam's heart jumped a beat.

It had been Martin, the Security Guard that had chased him through ENCOM the night of the ENCOM OS 12 release. The burns looked a bit more serious than what had happened to Quorra, but... the man was relaxed. Seeing Sam he spoke.

"Mr. Flynn... That investigator you brought in found it... Sorry that I got in the way... Check the Cameras... Miss Iso was the target." With that the security guard relaxed some more as the pain medication started to kick fully in as he started to relax enough for them to get some medical information from him.

Quorra... A Target!

Investigator?

Martin said check the Cameras... With that Sam was concerned as he made a phone call on his cell.

"Jet... See if you can transfer the footage from the security cameras hard drives to my phone..." Sam spoke to his friend.

"Sam... What is it? You have a lead on who tried to hurt Quorra?" Sam said as he could tell that Jet was driving his pickup truck.

"Yeah..." Sam Paused as a doctor came over to speak with Sam, but Sam raised his hand for the on call doctor to wait. "Another person got attacked and they just brought them into the hospital."

"Crap..." Jet said as he could hear him pull off to the side. "Give me a moment to get on remotely to the ENCOM network and I'll be sending you the stuff." Jet said as he started do stuff on the tablet computer that he and his father used in their work.

"Okay... The Doctor is here and I'll give you an update on how Quorra is doing."

"Thanks Man..." With that Jet hung up and Sam had the full doctor's attention.

"Yes..." Sam spoke concerned.

"Mr. Flynn. From what we have been able to figure out is that well from what the other employee who was attacked has said and we have been able to match this up with the injuries that Ms Iso has, is that they are both suffering from scalding heat burns." The doctor walked Sam over to a Security Guard station and picked something up that looked like a long Cricket bat. "Now given that I am playing a hunch here. What do you know about Ms. Iso's tattoos?" Sam got worried at this. But he decided to go with what he knew.

"Quorra has had them most of her life... That she got them when she was very young..." Well Sam hoped that would stop some of the questioning.

"Well, if I play this hunch right I think we might fight out why she was screaming even before the microwave beam hit her." Sam was getting even more worried here. "See, a few years ago the US Military started work on a bit of technology called the Active Denial system. Now essentially this is a heat ray warms up the water in your body. It is designed to make you jump away from a spot in little pain. It is like taking hold of a live electrical wire or touching a flame. You don't want to go in that direction again."

Sam knew that something was coming up as they walked into the room Quorra was sleeping in.

"Well a few months ago the California Department of Corrections started using the technology to break up prison riots. So taking Mr. Metal Detector here and..." the Doctor waved the metal detector across the now covered burn spot on Quorra's arm and it buzzed. It buzzed around Quorra's tattoo. This was not good.

"Um... is it supposed to do that?" Sam said reaching into his pocket... for the flair gun...

"Well normally no... But…" Sam stopped cold around the handle.

"See normal tattoos have a ceramic base... which doesn't make the metal detector go off, But like with unlicensed tattooists and those who get their tattoos in prison... Well they use found materials and the inks usually possess a metal base. Like Ms. Iso's here." Sam was confused.

"What do you mean?" The doctor grinned.

"Well, where ever Ms. Iso's folks got her tattooed at wasn't licensed and the ink in her arm reacted to the microwave energy. Like sticking steel wool in a microwave, It converted the microwaves to an electrical charge under her skin. Essentially, it was like being hit by a taser. She is just glad, like the security guard that someone was around to drag them out of range of the beam." Sam relaxed some.

"But this was an assault, so I would stick around to talk with the police to give them information of whoever wanted to hurt your girlfriend and the security guard."

"So... how are you going to treat her injuries?" Sam said with concern centered in realty now, given that they had dodged the bullet of Quorra's origins.

"Mostly with pain killers and some calamine lotion to deal with the pain and the skin irritation." Sam exhaled hard.

"Martin... the security guard... he looked worse off than Quorra..." Sam felt concerned about the guy. Hell for a man who had a large waistline, he could keep with Sam.

"He has the same injuries, but he got them to the back of his head." The doctor said speaking softly. "So between the two of them, they will have some down time before they are back up to speed, about a day or two. With a bit of tenderness to the skin." Sam walked over and touched Quorra's hand.

"Thanks..." Sam felt calmer now as he reached up to caress Quorra's face. After a moment Quorra opened her eyes.

"Sam..." She said softly... "Good to see you." Quorra reached up and touched his hand on her face.

"Hey there... Q." Sam spoke to his love. "How are you doing?"

"Well..." there was a pause. "I had a dream of your Father... We were talking... About the power of the Users..." There was a pause. "I think I saw one using her powers to treat me while I was here." Quorra snuggled into Sam's hand.

"You did… what was she like?" Sam knew that people didn't have User Powers in the real world, but humored Quorra looking up at the I.V. attached to her arm.

"Dark hair, female, nice face… had an accent… looked a little like me." Quorra snuggled again rolling onto her side. Sam saw the large bandage on Quorra's arm as she drifted back to sleep.

Quorra was safe. But what about the next time? Sam needed to find a doctor to look at Quorra, who wouldn't ask too many questions about what she was, and knew to keep their mouth shut.

That was when Anna came in through the door.

"How's Quorra?" Anna said easing herself into the room.

"Okay… she just went back to sleep." Sam looked up at the I.V. drip. "She is pretty much out of it from the pain meds." Sam looked around to figure out what to do next.

"Listen I just heard about that security guard from ENCOM."

"Yeah, Martin… Something tells me that I need to pay the guy a visit and see how he is doing."

"You should…" Anna paused. "Listen, How about I stay with Quorra here for a moment and you pop in and say Hi to the guy."

"Yeah…" Sam sighed as he looked back at Quorra as she slept. "One crisis down and another to go." Sam said watching how smooth Quorra's breathing was. "Dream sweet dreams dear… I'll be back soon." With that Anna blushed a little. "What?"

"Nothing, just that Quorra said some things that you tended to be a hopeless romantic when it came to your relationship." Anna said with a grin.

"Losing my Dad has made me think a whole lot more about the time I have with those around me. You don't know if today is going to be the last day with someone."

"No argument there, Sam. No argument there."

"Well, I'm going to check in on Martin and see how he is doing. I owe the guy big time for the near coronary I gave him when I base jumped off of the building."

"Yeah… you do that. I'll stay here with sleeping beauty and fend off the evil witches if they come." Anna said as she took a seat by Quorra.

* * *

I wrote most of this chapter after my Mom went into the hospital when she twisted both of her ankles at the same time in the space of a second and a half. So most of the scenes in the hospital are based on real life experience of worry, concern, and going over stuff over and over in your mind that you replay in your mind wondering if you could have done more at the time.

That sense of powerlessness that you feel at times like these is something I wanted to convey to Sam in this chapter. Additionally writing this has helped me weather through some of the insanity of the past week or so.

I played with that and cranked it up to eleven with Sam given what Quorra's origins are.

Additionally the Active Denial system is a real technology used in urban pacification. If you want to learn more about the technology, look it up on Wikipedia. This is where I got most of the information for this weapon from.

The tattoo stuff was mentioned in an episode of House M.D. Season 2 episode "Acceptance." I saw a rerun of the episode and remembered the MRI scene so combining it with me accidently sticking in a jar of Peanut butter in the microwave that had some tinfoil on the edges is where I got the Taser affect.

And thank you Mr. Wizard (the 80s kids science show) for showing us what happens when we stick steel wool in the microwave. Check it out on Youtube.

One last note. My Mom is doing better, getting around slowly, and I have learned to bandage ankles like a pro.

Here is to keeping my sanity through writing.

Let me know what you think by posting a review,

Hearns


	6. Chapter 5

This chapter is dedicated to Sabi who has posted a lot of reviews to this story. For the most part I ran with the character creator engine that I found on YouTube for Tron: Evolution - Battle Grids. And No I am not standing over your shoulder as you are reading this.

Now sit up straight, slouching isn't good for your back.

And I am not some Program that is living in your computer's Web Cam.

That would be just plain Creepy.

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

Sabi dismounted from her light cycle as she collapsed it back into her program rod. Sabi's small form and glowing green coding screamed that she was a Bostrom Iso. That and she ran with the unconventional long hair that had become popular among many of the younger Isos from that region, which in her case was her default brown. This fact of screaming her home region had been a problem for her in the past given how the Isos had been seen by the Clu era Programs as being a plague on the system. But now since the ReRezzing, there had been stories that the Isos had been to the other side of existence, seen the world of the Users. The type of DemiUser status that was dangerous in this time of change. The type of bad data that drove her crazy when it came to her trying live her life as a normal Program.

Delete Key, the crowd was larger than expected.

Seeing the crowd gather around the IO tower showed that the information that Longshot had been able to get his hands on was right. Jarvis was here. The Tower Guardian was doing his best with the security available, but this was a sting operation and they had to ready to move.

"The users are powerful. They can be ruthless, they can show compassion. They can perform miracles with the wave of their hands." Jarvis was standing at the entrance of the IO tower spouting his spiel over the crowd. "Yet they can be hurt. " There was a long pause by Jarvis. "Once hurt They plan their anger out. Plot, plan, wait..." The crowd was listening. "Clu chose to anger the Users... Threatened them. Defile what they created." Jarvis paused for the audience. "I have witnessed their power first hand. A user who choose to save a Program from derezzulution by my former Master. Overlord Clu!"

Jarvis was holding up the misshapen silver sphere.

"I hold here the symbol of the User... It is not perfection... It is imperfection... The users saw the Isos as something similar to them... It is meant to reflect our own imperfections. This is what Clu feared."

Good grief... Jarvis though that Isos like herself were the key to enlightenment. The quicker that he picked her the better, then Anon and Longshot could take Jarvis into custody.

"Why would the Users choose to create imperfect beings?" A program called out.

"I do not know why... I only choose to respect the Users. They have returned the Derezzed to The Grid. Rebuilt buildings and cities destroyed by Clu..." The guy had no context.

"What if the Users are coming here Jarvis?" That stopped the loudmouth cold Sabi spoke up.

"I know that I did not go to the other side. For Delete Key... I might have had and the data is encrypted. But right now there are those of us who want to speak to the Users." Sabi paused as she gritted her teeth. "For all you know this may have been a failsafe rigged in by the Creator Flynn when he Built the Grid." Sabi was marching up to the former Clu subordinate. "I am an Iso, and I know that you are just trying to suck up to the Users so that they don't decide to come down here and personally Derezz your Pixilated Behind." Sabi was venting as she started to climb up the stage. "For all I know, they might be in this crowd right now, just waiting for the chance to get payback for you hurting their friend."

"They are here! The Users have Returned?" Jarvis was freaking and Sabi realized that she may have made things worse for the security detail. Jarvis look like every Program around him was code hungry User bent on shattering him to pieces. That was when he tripped going down the stairs and wound up in front of Anon.

"Sabi..." Anon spoke in his masked voice. "You were told to intercept the talisman that Jarvis has been giving the other Isos, not start fear into the populace." Anon's tone stated his anger towards Sabi. All Sabi could do was look ashamed and turn away.

"So Jarvis... I see that a sycophant like yourself is just trying to buy a few extra cycles of existence." Anon said pulling up the former intelligence program off of the ground and holding him feet dangling to his face.

"You are Anon, Tron's supplemental aid program." Jarvis swallowed hard. "I heard that you were Derezzed."

""I was, now I have been Rerezzed." This made Jarvis start grinning through his teeth before gulping very loudly in fear.

"You look great..."

"Now could you tell me what Clu's plans were because if it is bad and has to pertain to a system called Earth, I would really like to know? Because whatever he needed to repurpose enough programs to invade the Grid several hundred times over, must be really big or really powerful." Then Dropping his helmet Anon showed Jarvis his new face. "Because I would like to know why and why in the Good name of the User did I wind up with my face being reformatted like this?"

"Do you have someplace private... Because..." Jarvis was shook a few times by Anon...

"Okay... Earth is the home system of the Users..." Jarvis just spat it out.

"WHAT?" Anon shook Jarvis a few more times.

"Earth is the home system of the Users. Clu wanted to invade... Make it like the Grid under his rule..."

"You are joking me right?" Anon said angrily. All he got was Jarvis shaking his head "No"

"Clu stole the secret of journey between worlds from Flynn himself... It was on his disk... Needed to open the doorway from the other side. Tricked another User to come here." Jarvis was panicking. The crowd around Anon started to get worried. "Brought the Son of Flynn... Sam Flynn... the one whose face you now wear..."

"Why would the Son of Flynn, Sam Flynn give me his face?"

"I do not know..." The intelligence program was using what intelligence he had to stay functional. "... Maybe as a message to those programs who knew him?" Jarvis looked away in shame. "He spared my life... When he came for a Female Iso... The last of her Kind... her name was Quorra... She was the student of the Elder Flynn... The Creator... Why do you think I have been giving these totems to every Female Iso I have come near..." Jarvis look at Anon in fear. "I want to serve the Users... Clu derezzed me for siding with them in that one single moment."

"Wait..." Sabi reached down to the ground and scooped up the misshapen sphere on the ground. "So... These items you have been giving out are..."

"Are from Flynn the Creator's fortress... Where do you think I have been hiding out from the security patrols at!" Sabi looked down at the item in her hand... Whatever its purpose was could only be understood by a User and this poor program may have found a secret layer of the Creator himself. No wonder he had found religion.

"You are coming with me Jarvis... If the Users will be returning, I want to be prepared and have all knowledge available to me to see if I can handle them and at least state our intentions to..." Everything got quite as the crowd looked up at the IO starting to Glow.

"I think the Users want to have a word too Anon." Sabi said looking up at the tower.

"Yeah... and who gets to be the one to speak with them?" Anon said realizing that he needed information about the Users fast and the poor fool in his hands was probably the only one who had learned the secrets of how a User would think. "Take me to Flynn's layer and get the Tower Guardian Dumont, to join me. He is the only one here who has any extensive knowledge about the Users."

"Yeah... Gotcha..." Sabi said moving through the crowd as she was joined by several other members of Longshot's team as they went to find Dumont's tower. Everyone standing around the IO tower knew that the clock was ticking and was wondering what the response would be for the Users and the Programs.

* * *

Sam had never thought that coming back from the hospital would be such a nightmare. Hell... Quorra had been a handful in just getting her into Jet's truck.

The pain killers must have been really strong or Quorra wasn't used to them. Talk about being philosophical about the small things. Though after this Sam swore that he would have to find a Concierge Doctor to look after Quorra for any future medical ailments that would befall the young Iso.

But it was what Martin had said about their mysterious investigator. That he had seen Quorra and Anna retracing their path. Sam owed Martin a lot for just doing his job. Sam had made the guy's day by paying for his medical bills in full. The least he could do for the guy after he had chased Sam through the ENCOM building.

One thing that Sam did learn was that Martin was on his Church's Softball team... Well Sam swore that after this he would attend one of Martin's team games in the future out of respect of man. Man talk about a guy who didn't look it, Martin could sure move.

That was when the four of them reached Sam's front door. Taking out his phone, Sam dialed up the garage door and told it to open. Amazing what one could do with an old landline phone, a tone reader, and a flashlight wired with a small circuit completer hooked to the garaged activate button. With that the door went up.

Sam knew that if you didn't know the phone number or the unlock number; you weren't going to get in.

Taking Quorra out of the truck required that he and Jet team up, Jet taking Quorra's legs and Sam taking Quorra's upper half. Though Quorra looked lighter than she looked, she was still loopy and was sleeping soundly on the ride home.

"Wow... I thought you be living in some mansion, not some..." Anna looked at the conglomeration of Shipping containers that made up Sam's pad.

"Mess of Shipping containers." Sam Grinned as leaned against one of the walls stood a pile of wall insulation and several cans of paint with primer. "Well the first floor used to be the workshop of one of the founders of ENCOM. When my Dad took over the company he let the guy keep working for the firm after his retirement on side projects. Afterwards when the old guy died. Well in his will the place got passed to my Dad, and when he was declared dead back in ninety-five the place was passed on to me." Sam walked up to the set of spiral stairs that he had put in to lead to the second floor of storage containers.

"Yeah... The shipping containers were added by me since I read an article about how they are using them as construction material in building houses in Europe, that and picking them up is dirt cheap."

"So... You are in the process of..." Anna looked at the building supplies.

"Making the place livable... Quorra and I started watching some of these home makeover shows on late night TV."

"Hey I don't want to take Quorra up that Spiral staircase." Jet said and Sam anticipating his actions walked over to one of the walls and flicked a switch. With that from the ceiling a set of stairs started to descend from the roof to the floor.

"Saw this in a nightclub once... Except that it went from the floor to the guy's office on the second floor. I decided to make it so that it goes from the ceiling down." Sam went up the stairs as the support rods and the rope chain provided for handholds for going up the stairs.

"I see that you inherited your mom's architectural design genes from her." Sam sighed hearing Jet's reference to his late mother.

"Yeah..." Sam moved up the stairs as Jet carried Quorra on up to the second Floor. "I wish that she could have seen what I have become."

On the second floor of Sam's place was radically different than below. Most of the walls looked like they were done in a European style with a techno fusion design, combined with organic feeling vintage Victorian style furniture.

"Wow..." Anna exclaimed as she looked at the upper floor. "I can tell where you are putting the money at."

"Yeah... and a few weekends." Sam said as he opened a door to the Bedroom. "Put her down on the bed." Quorra moaned as she reached for a pillow and went back to sleep. "Anna... Listen... how about you and Jet stick around." Sam said realizing that he didn't want to be alone and having the extra help would be an advantage.

"I don't mind." Jet said as he looked at Quorra. "Anna?" Anna sat down on the bed and looked at her friend before looking at Sam then at Jet.

"Okay... I'll stay, but we need to pick some stuff from our places. Can you handle Quorra until we get back?" Sam nodded.

"I'll see if I can make up an extra bed or two." Sam said as he looked around to see where he had stashed the inflate-a-bed and extra blankets and bedding he and Quorra had bought during a trip to Dillards. Somehow rebuilding Quorra's bedroom from his dad's bat cave on the Grid somehow acted as a lesson in teaching her about money, but some of the social protocols needed for moving around the User World. But right now, seeing Quorra asleep in their bed made him relax some.

Seeing Anna and Jet leave through the door made him think about the footage that Jet had downloaded to phone as he hunted down a spare set of sheets as the inflatable bed as it formed into its completed form over the next couple of minutes.

With sheets in hand and tucking in the bedding into Sam's downstairs Couch, Sam waited as the videos downloaded to his phone before he would connect the projector to view it in a larger format. As Sam walked over to the other bed that had finished inflating he turned to look at the calendar on his fridge, conference call with Xanatos Enterprises 9:00 am Video chat with Golden Cup Technologies at 11:00 am 3:00 pm conference call with Nightstone Unlimited. The big New York Three. Sam knocked his head against the fridge. Might as well get the press release worked on and sent off to Alan. With that Sam finished making the other bed and reached over to one of the prototype new tablets that had been delivered by Alan for him to Beta test of the Super Flynn OS on the mobile platform and started to do the setup and with a few taps of his fingers he started working on the press release.

* * *

Becky was watching the local news stream over her laptop, this was not good. Dave had done his best to find out what was going on, but it looked like Quorra Iso had been the target and somehow set off the weapon again and on the process injuring some security guard. Balthazar didn't have to chew out Dave; Dave was beating himself more than Balthazar could do just by glaring at him.

That was when the newscaster started to cover the events with video footage.

In addition to our coverage of the Assault on ENCOM we have just received a press release from CEO Sam Flynn and it states:

In light of recent events and the attack on several of our employees, my heart goes out to the families of those that have been hurt. We here at ENCOM hope that those responsible for these actions are brought to justice.

Yeah... Every private security firm in all fifty states was probably receiving the video files of the attack and debates of whether or not of to have the bastard life handled through the "you call, we haul" or better "you call, we take out the trash". The latter usually involved a several bottles of acid and a used bathtub. Becky had plenty of crime novels to realize that Researchers tended to dig up the stuff people didn't want to know about.

Seeing that Veronica had come in to the hotel room to report about what she had been able to discovered from her journey to the hospital with Quorra Iso would be interesting.

Veronica had gathered everyone in a circle in the middle of the room and using an illusion spell she showed what she had learned from Quorra Iso's mind.

Becky and Dave's Jaws had hit the floor when they saw many of the images mostly pertaining to Quorra's memories of the late Kevin Flynn.

"Wait... those buildings and those people look like they have come out one of his computer games." Dave said watching may of the images. Then, seeing Quorra help sponsor and tutor several youths of that world in some sort of Olympic style games.

"Yes... these are memories of some of the better times in her life." Veronica said trying to figure out the futuristic setting Quorra had come from. "She looked to be some sort of aid to some political figure. The leader of a group called the Isos."

"Iso... like her last name..." Becky was getting the feeling that the late Flynn was more than a brilliant programmer, but had been able to travel between worlds.

"Yes... I believe that Quorra has connected herself so closely with her people that given the events that I had seen later that even while in hiding with her mentor Flynn, this cultural identity was still strong within her." Veronica said as she speed through the images. What everyone saw next made Becky, Dave and Balthazar want to be sick. They saw a race war and genocide being committed by a dark figure. A dark doppelganger version of Kevin Flynn.

"Quorra barely survived these events when Flynn found her." Veronica said as she pushed forward as the Games seen earlier got more gladiatorial and more bloody. Individuals disappearing. Troops in the streets. "Flynn did his best to help her through these dark times." The images shifted to Flynn holding a screaming Quorra in a cave as they moved through a flat desert. Later, they had found their way to a mountain compound of Flynn's. There he nursed Quorra back to health.

The strange thing throughout all of these images... There was no sun... No Daytime... Just night. It was as if all of the light was emitted from the people or the buildings, or the landscape itself. Even the occasional creature. This to Dave's surprise looked like they were characters from Flynn's games.

"Becky... Mind that I use your computer." Dave said as he moved out of the circle and started to for Becky's tablet laptop and typed some information in before bringing it back into the image circle. "Take a look at this." Dave held up the screen for everyone to look at. "over the last couple of years, there have been images that have wound up on the internet of Flynn working on some grand project. Some thought he was working on a city of the future based on his game designs. but what if he did the opposite. What if his game designs were influenced by what he saw and he wanted to tell stories of the individuals of the world he had been able to go to. Think Balthazar... you were trapped in a vase for like a decade or so... What if Flynn got stuck in this world for two decades and wasn't able to get back." This had gotten everyone's attention.

"Dave... you mean that Flynn found a way to travel between worlds and..." Becky watched as Sam Flynn came into the picture as Quorra rescued him from the gladiatorial games and having a meal with his father and Quorra...

"And Sam Flynn somehow found a way there to save his Dad." This is when the images started to get more rapid as in the last moment they saw what had happened to the Elder Flynn.

"Yeah... The story about Flynn's death were right... he gave his life to save his son and his student." That was when they saw Quorra Iso on the floor in some underground lab lying next to Sam Flynn as she struggled to come to terms with being in a new world.

"She must be so alone..." Becky said reaching out to trace Quorra's face and they now understood that they were dealing with the knowledge of an advanced magic beyond their comprehension. The only person in the room that had any chance of fully understanding it would be Dave.

"This is not going to be good." Dave said realizing that given his powers, he needed to brush up on learning about Flynn's games and the man who wrote them. With that they all entered research mode to start to begin this new magic that had just landed in their laps.

* * *

Jet Bradley got out of his truck along with Anna and they walked over and knocked on Sam's door. The thundering sound got Sam's attention as he moved over and hit the button to raise the garage door. Sam had changed out of his business clothes and was wearing a pair of jeans and t-shirt as he welcomed them in.

"Hey guys... Thanks for coming back here." Sam said as he rubbed the back of his head with his knuckles to relieve the stress in the side of his neck.

"Well how's Quorra doing?" Jet said as he placed an overnight bag on the floor. Sam walked back over his living room table where he had at least three tablet computers going and a mini LED projector aimed at the wall.

"Alright... Still sleepy, but she walked around a little while ago, grabbed some crackers and walked off with the toaster from the kitchen." Sam said looking over the digital paperwork before him. The five electro-surface sensitive styluses that were spread over the table showed that he was putting his signature on forms.

"Why would Quorra walk off with the Toaster?" Jet said looking at the improvised desk. Sam just grinned as he signed another form on the touch screen.

"Actually she is sleeping with it." This got a "What!" look from both Jet and Anna. "Don't worry, I dumped the crumbs out and unplugged it even before Quorra got to it."

"Yeah... But a toaster?" Anna saw the image but couldn't comprehend it. Then there was a tap at the top of the stairs as Quorra was coming down half awake. What got everyone's attention was that she was hugging the toaster, like a stuffed animal. With that Quorra rubbed her face against the polished metal surface of the art deco toaster.

"Munchies and juice..." Quorra said with a grin as she plodded into the kitchen.

"Quorra what do you want for Munchies?" Sam said as he intercepted Quorra.

"Fish Sticks and vanilla pudding." Quorra said as Sam guided her to the couch and sat her down. Then with a plop Quorra fell over to one side asleep and snuggled herself closer to the toaster. Sam just sighed.

"Listen, How about I handle the Fish sticks and pudding," Jet said moving into the kitchen. "While you and Anna take care of Sleeping Beauty there."

"Thanks Jet..." Sam said as he reached under Quorra and picked her up toaster and all and walked her back up to the bedroom.

"Don't mention it man... Hey there is one more thing I need to tell you." Sam Stopped mid stride up the stairs.

"What is it?" Sam was concerned.

"I finished working on your old man's hard drive and got it running on an emulation platform on the ENCOM system. If you want I can remote into it after you put Quorra to bed." Sam looked down at Quorra and adjusted her some deep in thought.

"Okay... Thanks jet... Listen Anna, could you stay with Quorra while I look over the information." Anna looked at Sam concerned.

"Sure Sam... I'll keep an eye on Quorra." Then Anna reached out to touch Sam on the Shoulder. "What is on your Dad's Old hard drive? I mean you have been working like mad to clean ENCOM up, but what is on there, some new tech that your old man was working on when he disappeared. I mean it wouldn't be that advanced given the tech we have now these days."

Sam sighed. "My dad predicted Wi-Fi back in eighty-five and that was about twenty-five plus years ago. Now think of that edge of advanced tech fast forwarded to now. Now you see what some of where my Dad was at with his tech theories."

"So... are we talking 3D TV without the glasses...?" Anna said thinking aloud.

"Think Holodeck... In your hands." Sam said moving up the stairs with Quorra.

"Oh, Crap..." Anna said realizing she was on the ground floor of the next tech revolution.

* * *

Anon had just spent the last few cycles looking through the Creator's Sanctuary. for the most part between Jarvis acting in fear that he would be derezzed at any moment. Though given that Jarvis knew more about this place than he did, did give the program a little breathing room, a little but not a lot that the Program would be a pain in his side. Anon had to start seeing the place as a crime scene. Follow the data, look at the facts.

But this was a radically different case.

First off he had to reconstruct the crime scene after seeing that Clu had vented his fury on the structure. First off he had to profile two individuals, Clu and Flynn.

Clu's anger was prevalent. His rage was aimed at items in the main living area so most of the destruction was contained in that area. Mostly the damage consisted of bashed furniture, and tossed items. But everything looked fairly intact.

Walking through the structure Anon noticed that Jarvis had done his best to return items back to where they had been tossed. But it was the rectangular items sitting on the shelf by the lift that had brought them in.

Mirai one the newer members that had joined the Grid Security detail was like Longshot, a former Games participant who used to race lightcycles in the pre-Clu era. She had come with the small team that had aided Sabi to bring Dumont to this place. She was one of the few Programs that Anon trusted with courier duty but right now she was working with the Tower Guardian to figure out the structure.

"This place is amazing!" Dumont said as he walked around the structure. "I suspected that the Users were like us on some level. Even with Clu's desecration of this place I can start to see how much likes us they are." Anon agreed, this would make finding what Clu was looking for about the User world.

"Yes, and this means that there might be some data terminal around here. Someplace where Flynn would have kept his files stored at." Anon said searching around for a terminal.

"Well I hope you have better luck than Clu did, because we searched from top to bottom of this place and found no data files."

"The Users are strange beings. They are a counter diction at times." Dumont said walking over to a small sofa and sat down. "one moment they are logical as a Basic Program, while at other times they are as passionate and reckless as an Iso. No offense dear." Dumont said looking at the Green suited Iso in the group.

"None taken Guardian..." Sabi said as she leaned against one of the walls. One thing that she had learned from the other Isos was to respect your elders. "after what had happened earlier at the tower I feel that's I owe you're more of an apology for my actions."

"Well, it isn't like he hid the data in plain sight." Mirai said knocking on the walls for a secret panel or some projected interface to pop up. Jarvis walked over to the shelves where a series of rectangular object lay and picked on and opened it up. Sabi walking over decided to see what the former minion of Clu was looking at and her eyes grew wide as he flipped the sheet of material up as she looked it from the side.

"What if Flynn did hide his data in plain sight." Sabi reached out and took the rectangle item out of Jarvis' hands and rotated it ninety degrees. "Guys..." Sabi called out as she motioned for everyone to come to her. "What if he hid his data in an analogue format?" Anon and Dumont rushed over to where the young Iso was standing.

"What do you mean?" Dumont said looking at the young Iso.

"What if Flynn needed to hide information, but needed a way to keep it visible for easy access." Sabi started to flip through the material. "What if he broke up a text file into small segments and had them displayed as text on a physical structure. Take a look at this section of material here." Sabi pointed to the document on the page before her. "Now follow my finger." Sabi traced a line down the page before running her finger up the indentation of the page to the top of the next sheet, then down, then she flipped the sheet over and started from the top. "He encrypted his data in a simple wave form. Front to back, front to back." This is when Sabi pointed to the other analog structures before them on the shelf.

Everyone stopped cold as they realized that they had found Flynn's data archive on the world of the Users.

"Clu must have looked at this and saw nothing, but it contained..." Jarvis was in shock.

"Everything you wanted to know about the world of the Users and then some." Dumont started to move his fingers over the spines of the books on Flynn's bookshelf.

"Ingenious..." Anon said as he moved over and started to read the spines... "_World Civics, Origin of the Species, Philosophy of Plato, Oxford English Dictionary, Dante's Inferno, The Norton Shakespeare, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Britannica A, Britannica B- Br, More Britannica, The Holy Bible, Greek Myths and Legends, World History, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea__, Around the Moon, Around the World in Eighty Days._" Anon traced his fingers along the edges of several more dozen titles. "Looks like these files were all created by the same individual a Jules Verne."

"Everyone, start looking for similar items like these." Dumont said reaching for the nearest text and opening it up which was The Philosophy of Plato.

"Yeah, and start reading." Sabi said reaching for another text.

"Yes... the knowledge is before us. Thank the Users." Jarvis said as he reached for Dante's Inferno.

"Something tells me we might not like what we might find. But some information is better than none when going into the unknown." Anon said as he started searching the structure for more information text boxes. That was when he found another room and entered. "Everyone you all better come in here." With that he had gotten everyone' attention. What they saw made the stop cold.

"I think we are going to need a lot more help going through this data." Mirai said looking at the room about the size of the main living area full of text files from floor to ceiling.

"Yeah..." Sabi said looking at the very large archive of analog data they had found. "I think this is going to take awhile to go through."

"Yes Child... I think it will." Dumont said realizing the task before them, but the fate of their world was literally in their hands.

* * *

After seeing Tron Legacy, I remember that Scene where Clu's Henchman Jarvis was looking at a book the wrong way. I was thinking why not go forward with that and point out that information that Clu was after was hidden in plain sight. So I decided how would a being in a digital world relate to Flynn storing some of his Data in an Analog format. It would be mind blowing.

Additionally, I decided that I would start putting down some Jules Verne since that is Quorra's favorite author.

Plus if you caught it, the stairs in Sam's place are based off of the stairs in Castor's End of Line Club but I inverted them given the technical challenges of putting them into the floor.

That and if you are a Doctor Who fan, you will notice what Quorra's munchies are.

Well let me know what you think.

And Sabi watch out for the ball, just my Sally Sparrow reference here.

Hearns.


	7. Chapter 6

Thanks you all for posting reviews to my story, they have inspired me to keep on adding chapters.

Also, if you want me to add your ideas to the story, please e-mail me. My address can be reached through my profile page.

Well class is starting this coming week, so I won't be updating as often with my story during the semester. But I'll see if I can work on it with some tech that I have come into contact with. If all else fails, I will type this out with my thumbs between classes. Thank you IPod Apps.

Additionally, I have been reading over other works and the themes that have been arising from them and been using them for inspiration for story points.

Sabi… I read over that section that you did for your story that I recommended for the power outage and because of how you wrote both versions of it I decided to do my own spin to it. Hope that you like.

Oh and the Fish sticks and the Vanilla Pudding joke from last chapter is a reference to the 11th Doctor's regeneration from when he crash lands in front of Amy Pond's house at the start of Series (Season) 5 and has a bad case of the munchies. Just something I wanted to clarify for those of you who were not fans of Doctor Who.

Well now with that out of way, on with the Story.

* * *

Chapter 6:

* * *

Jet had spent the last few hours doing research on the network to see if the Solar OS emulator he was running was handling the Hard Drive that He, Sam and Quorra had found in Flynn's old Hackers Cave. Between having to run various computer repair utilities to nurse the drive's data back into shape. The most recent changes to the system pointed to a few days before Sam's father disappeared to a program called the Grid. Then the strange thing was that the programs started running as if they were part of a cybermass program.

What had Kevin Flynn been running when he disappeared? It looked to be some sort of multiple AI social environment.

Why would Flynn build a city environment for computer programs?

Hell some of these programs look like they had build dates going back to 1982 and before.

There was a subroutine for something called PARASCOPE and Jet wondered what that was for but Jet had the feeling that it pertained to something to the program environment of the Grid. After some consideration Jet activated it to see what it would do.

Jet watched as the display to his tablet computer start to spit out data on the system emulator he was running.

GRID ENVIRONMENT RUNNING AT 99%

IO TOWERS - ON STANDBY

TOTAL PROGRAM POPULATION 1,671,145,616

AVAILABLE AREAS: TRON CITY, BOSTRUM, LIGHT CITY, ARENA CENTER...

The list of areas available on the system went on for a while. So Jet decided to let the system complete its location run and decided to type in view for Arena Center.

With that a window opened up and a wireframe structure started to show a large sports arena complex.

Grid was some sort of gaming environment that Sam's father had been working on. Well you couldn't interact with it but at least you could watch. That is when Jet realized that many of these programs were playing in games that Sam's father had written back in his early days at ENCOM. Why would Kevin Flynn want to watch AI Programs play his old computer games? Maybe the answer would present itself if he just let the system run.

Might as well watch Jet thought as he sat down with his cup of instant sweetened green tea as he let Anna and Sam get some sleep as he took his shift watch on Quorra and watched a few of these programs play on the screen.

* * *

Gem had heard word about the finding of Flynn's layer in the Outlands by the abandoned Bostrom colony... Over the last few cycles Anon and a small team of Programs had scowered over the data they had found. But it was when they had found Flynn's Journal log that things started to get interesting.

Mostly Flynn blamed himself for what had happened to the Isos, Tron, even for the hell that he had put Alan through by going missing in the User World... Anon had figured that Flynn was talking about the User Alan1 by the description he had given in the journal.

But it was Flynn's sadness in that he hadn't been there for his son Sam. To see him Grow up... From what had been learned was that Users had a compile stage that they underwent for several cycles and not being there for Flynn to see Sam's compiling up into a full User had saddened him greatly.

The event that Flynn had talked about most was the fact that he wasn't alone. Quorra, the Last Iso had been there to make the loneliness somewhat tolerable for him.

Quorra... Gem thought of the young Iso, being so alone after the Purge. What would it be like to be the last of any program type? The last of your kind! Gem thought of all of the pain she had experienced in her life and multiplied it by a factor of a thousand and it didn't feel like it was enough for what Quorra could have possibly gone through in her lifespan.

Somehow that young Games Champion of the Isos had somehow through sheer luck survived everything and found Flynn. Well from what Flynn's journal had said that he had found her near derezzing and nursed her systems back online when he found them some shelter until he could get them to his Safehouse in the Outlands. Then to keep her reigned in Flynn started to teach her about the User World.

The things that Quorra must have learned about the User World...

Even Jarvis was scared even after he read through his first text file on a journey to places Called Hell and Heaven. Though given how Jarvis talked about this Hell place, it was probably where the Users had sent Clu for his crimes. The image of spending eternity trapped with other individuals in one of the lower nine levels of this place felt some how appropriate for an individual like Clu. For those who had lost loved ones under Clu's reign, the thought that Clu would be forever trapped for eternity with other treacherous individuals who had committed crimes against the Users just felt right. Gem felt that somewhere whatever action she had done. Some little thing such as given Sam that little bit of advice before he entered the Games is what had saved her from one of the many fates that had been referenced in the Inferno.

Now Gem sat beside her friend as they drove through the old Games Arena in a procured hover transport watching for anyone who had appeared since the most recent rains had occurred in the past hour. The number of the Rerezzed had been popping up had been steady rate over the last few storms. When her old friend Janelle asked her to help scourer the Arena for survivors on light cycles and a few transports, it felt like the right thing to do.

So far they had found a few individuals but that last one they had found was an female program wondering the area wearing nothing much than an Identity Disk and only an Identity disk.

One of the other programs, a Bostrom Iso name Gibson, had lent his jacket to the under dressed program until they got back to some of main areas and could track down some clothing. So far Gem had practically been on the verge of slugging the Gibson senseless after he had made a pass at her, but seeing that the girl was scared Gem thought otherwise. The last thing anyone in the transport needed was a full tilt panic attack, people were still on edge from being undeleted.

That was when they had to go back because there was a second storm coming. Then the IO towers started to glow then there was a flash that covered the entire Grid.

Suddenly Gem felt like nothing had changed but there was an itchy feeling in the back of her programming that something had changed. Like she was being watched.

"Hey did you feel that?" Gem said looking around the transport as it was on the path to pull into the repair terminal to drop off its current load of passengers.

"A little." Gibson said as his code started to glow brighter some. That was when several of the other Rerezzed started to look around.

"Are we going to be used in the games?" The girl said getting scared. Gem turned to look at the girl and walked over to her.

"No... Clu was defeated..." Gem swallowed hard. "Did you see the world of the Users?" The girl got nervous at this.

"No... Wait... The world of the Users... Did a User defeat Clu?" Gem realized that she was heading into some scary territory here. Gem nodded in confirmation. "Was it Flynn? Was it he that destroyed Clu?"

"I don't know... I am one of the returned too." Gem said solemnly before she looked away. "One moment I was at the End of Line Club the moment that Zuse sold out Flynn and was betrayed by Clu when Clu decided to ensure that he was the only one who had seen the information on Flynn's stolen Identity Disk that Zuse had in his possession. The explosion..." Gem shuddered remembering the flames rushing towards her body, her code being ripped apart, and things she didn't really want to remember as the derezzing process started to take place. Gem reached out to steady herself as the Program she was talking to stand up and take hold to her. "I was Derezzed..." There was a long pause before she continued. "I don't know why I have returned, but the person that I saw when I returned was a security program meant to aid Tron named Anon. Since then I have been trying to put the pieces back together of why the Users returned me." Gibson looked at Gem.

"Well, I see that you got Derezzed in an explosion. Anon had to Derezz me after I got infected with the virus striking through the system." Gem looked up swallowing hard.

"You were infected?" She moved backwards away from the green toned program and shielding the younger program behind her.

"Was... Then the next moment I can clearly remember is that I wake up on the floor of a Disk Wars platform." Gibson looked around slowly. "Do you sense that?" Gibson said as he started to look down on the Grid. "Hey we have another survivor." It took a while as they got closer to realize that it wasn't one person but two that were walking together.

"Hey... isn't that..." Gem watched as Janelle slowed the transport down and brought it to a stop before the two programs.

"Radia..." Gem slid the door of the transport open even before it came to a stop. The late co-administrator froze as another program came out from behind her and raised his disk to them. Gibson joined Gem as they exited the vehicle.

"Radia..." Gibson said dropping down his hood to show that he wasn't one of the infected. The he caught a look at program protecting her. "Council member Jalen!" Gibson stopped cold. "I knew that the rains were bringing back the derezzed, just that... "Gibson shook his head. "Wow... Talk about things getting weird." This was when Jalen looked at the racing program.

"Could someone tell me what is happening?" Gibson decided that things were fairly normal for the Rerezzed.

"I think that the Users have returned..." Gibson said looking towards Gem. "I think Gem has more experience with what has been happening." Radia looked towards Gem.

"Tell me... Has the Plague been stopped... or has someone found a cure for it?" Gem looked around realizing that for the time being she had the most answers. Radia looked at the Jalen who from all appearances had the look of someone who had been through the deepest recesses of the Trash Bin before being returned to the realm of active programs.

"The Plague virus..." Gem paused before continuing. "There is much to explain, but... I believe that you should come with us..." Gem motioned to the transport.

"Gem... I am starting to feel some real strange code around." Gem watched as the young program that was doing her best to cover herself with Gibson's over-sized coat pulled it closer around her hoping the coding cloth would protect her more.

"Where do you sense the strange code?" Gibson said rushing back to the Transport.

"Here!" The young program said as she felt Gibson's jacket start to turn to Basic Blue with her coding.

"What do you mean here?" Gibson raced into the transport as he started to see some strange coding appear her. "You mean here!" Gibson watched as the girl pointed her hand towards the strange code. As Gibson leaned in to look at it and reach towards it a spark of strange code jumped at the two and Gibson and the young program were pushed backwards from the energy discharge as the strange code flowed through their systems before the visible charge dissipated. Attempting to right himself Gibson reached up and placed his hand on the council of the transport and...

"... What the... Come on man... at least show me what Gibson and that girl were about to encounter... Don't crash on me..." A voice rang out from the terminal...

"Wha..." Gibson said as he heaved himself up to look at the screen. "hey..." Gibson turned to see an image on the monitor under his hand. It was a strange program wearing a strange pair of thin rimmed goggles and a very muscular build. Then there was the sound a tapping on a surface as this individual attempted to do something to his terminal. "Come on, come on, reestablish file connection..." the strange program said as a voice came over the audio.

"Hey Jet... what's up?" The voice sounded familiar as Janelle and Gem rushed over to help the young female program up. "Nothing much Sam... I was just in the middle of some Machanime program that your old man had on his system. It was getting good, up until the encoder program crapped out." Sam moved onto frame. Gem's programming cycles missed a beat as she saw SamFlynn's face.

"Sam... Gibson how did you do that?" The Loner Iso blinked a few times... "What do you mean? I just got thrown against the wall here and you are saying that put the patch of coding there was..." There was a beat as Gibson realized as with everyone in the transport now understood what they were now looking at. "Sam... as in SamFlynn as in the User SamFlynn..."

"So what was this video file about?" Sam said reaching into a box and pulling out a container that contained some fluid which he decided to remove the lid from and proceeded to drink.

"I think it was some soap opera or drama that your old man had created about some sort of reverse rapture happening to some alien civilization. Kinda of cross between the plot line of the second Resident Evil movie and the vintage flick, Damnation Alley." Jet the user who had been watching started talk some more. "Well it looks like they were driving around in some transport picking up survivors. There had been an argument between this Gem girl who was working with one of her Friends and some jerk of a jackass named Gibson..."

"Jackass... the guy called me a Jackass..." Gem grinned at this as she listened on.

"Well it kinda of fits you Gibson." Before Gibson could protest Jalen reached over and stopped him as they realized that whatever was going on, they were getting the User eye view of what was happening to their world. "I don't think this user knows that he had been watching us. He thinks that we are some prerecorded file on Flynn's system." Jalen said realizing what they were witnessing were two Users communicating in their natural environment.

"So far they had encountered these two political figures a Cleopatra looking woman named Radia and some other guy named Jalen..." There was pause as things got depressing for the User. "Then the girl said she sensed something strange and she and this Gibson guy touched something and poof... the codec crashed." Sam now placed his drink down and walked over to the display as it shifted towards Sam's face.

"How much of the codec got fried Jet?" Sam said as he started to look at the data on the other side of the screen.

"I don't know... from all I can tell the codec is still running, but I'm not able to view information from the other side. It's like the file has stopped, but data is still being sent through the system. Kinda of like trying to watch a video file with the wrong codec installed, sometimes you get audio but no video. Other times you just get really crappy video. Here the file is still running, just no audio or video is coming out." Sam moved and sat down and started tapping on the screen.

"Wait, did you hear the information is still being sent, except..." Gem spoke aloud.

"Except instead of them seeing us, we are seeing them." The young program said realizing what was happening.

"Do you have a back up of the codec?" Jet Nodded.

"Yeah... I have a copy of all of the data from the original drive Sam... Hell you asked me to go through and use my skills in system repair to purge this nasty bit of corrupted programming called Clu." Jet said taking a break from the system. "So... Can't sleep." Sam nodded.

"After all that happened yesterday... between the attack on ENCOM and the police investigating and Martin's medical bills." Jet reached out his friend and patted him on the shoulder.

"Yeah... That old guy must be glad that you are helping him like this. I mean you B and E-ed your way into ENCOM tower, Stole data that was the rights of the people and placed it on the web so everyone could download it free of charge…" Jet paused for a moment as he ran down the list of things Sam had done that night. "…And scared the old fool thinking that you were going to commit suicide." Sam grinned at this.

"Yeah and every morning I bring the guy coffee to pay him back for the hell I put him through that night." Sam said looking at the screen. "Looks like the coding got swallowed up by two programs and..." Sam rubbed his chin. Gibson and the girl were getting worried. Sam was looking at them... Their Code... Their inner workings, the codec was within them now. "Looks like a Basic and a..." Sam turned towards Jet. "An Iso? Jet how many Iso programs have you salvaged man?" Gibson looked worried at the User who was wondering at the skill and talent that his friend had used to repair and restore the Grid to its former glory.

"Well out of a total population of over a one point six billion programs; about a third went missing due to the Clu program mucking up the system that I had to yank back from the abyss of the recycle bin that was on the system. But I can't tell you how many are these Iso programs and the standard Basics I have come across from that bin they had been tossed into. I have just treated them the same, just working hard to repair the damaged system." The user that had brought them back had no preference to Iso or Basic, in his eyes they were equal. "Though I have been chunking malicious code left and right, reverting back to an earlier state in some cases, while in others, just chunking it in seeing that it is just making a mess of things, but that came down to a judgment call to its impact on the overall system." Gem gulped hard at that realizing that she just missed being deleted by just a choice. "Mostly it was easier to revert some of the programs back to their last saved point and restore from there."

"Hopefully you can show Quorra off your talents when you present her with the restored system." Sam Patted Jet on the back. Quorra... Wait, they were talking about Quorra Gem thought as she leaned closer to the screen.

"Yeah, the mysterious Ms. Iso... the Apprentice of the Mighty Kevin Flynn..." there was a sigh..."So how is old Padawan Girl doing from the double whammy of being tazed and barbecued at the same time?"

"Well, she is a little tired but the meds painkillers are doing wonders for her system." Sam Exhaled

"So, doped up, high, has the munchies and..." Jet waited for the rest to come into play.

"Sleeping though most of the pain, though I swear Marvin is getting envious of the toaster as he tried to run off with it the moment Quorra's hold on it weakened." Jet cheered.

"Go Marvin!" Sam understood and joined him in the laughter. "I swear that Quorra and Marvin have been the best two influences in your life since your dad went missing all those years ago." That was when things got somber.

"Sam..." A female voice called out as the two male Users looked to something or someone off screen.

"Anna?" Sam concerned. "What's happening?"

"Quorra's awake and is wanting to talk to you and only you." there was a pause before she continued. "I think it is about why she was looking for you before she was attacked." With that Sam got up and walked away from the display as fast as he could. Everyone in the transport was looking at each other.

"That was the world of the Users..." then everyone looked at Gibson and the girl. "You two have the power to look into the world of the Users." Radia said with growing concern. "Tell me what has been happening, and why these two have been blessed with the power to see into the world of the Users. And how an Iso such as Quorra has been able to make the journey there?"

Gem decided to start from the beginning. Within the next little while the two Iso leaders had been floored by the revelations that had taken place. Now with this new piece of the puzzle presented towards them there was a complete set of new questions taking place: How had Quorra of the Isos wound up in the world of the Users?

* * *

Quorra sat up in bed. Her skin still tingled from the beam that had hit her but it was how her head felt. It felt like someone had used her head for disk wars disk against Rinzler or by Rinzler, probably both given the feeling behind frontal lobe and temples. Looking over and seeing that Anna had been in bed sleeping with her was a bit strange, but seeing Marve staring down the toaster on the floor was stranger. That was when Quorra reached up to touch her left arm and felt the bandage over her glyph. Quorra winced as she touched it.

The burn, the... The camera, the heat. Anna defending her... The cold hiss of the white cloud covering her skin.

Pain...

Waking up in the repair bay with repair Programs... No... Users. Adult female Caucasian approximate age mid to late twenties. Has a First degree burn over the left side of her body. A second degree electrical burn on her upper left bicep. Subject has a white tattoo in same area.

Miss what is your name?

Quorra

Okay Cora, do you remember what happened with you?

Pain, burn like candle, hot boiling water, arm.

Anna save... Tell Flynn someone controlling clouds over ENCOM. Users.

Then the woman. Dark hair, accent, not of this sector. Sounded like Mario, or Godfather.

Rest... Memories. Flynn. The Dark Times. Full User powers. Fight against Clu's Fleet.

Innocents slain, tricked by Clu.

Human shields. Break Flynn's will to fight.

Flynn sense of defeat.

Powerless, sadness.

Quorra was scared when Flynn returned. Just knelt there for millicycles, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink.

Master Flynn please drink! Just a little.

I don't want to be alone!

You're the only family I have!

Flynn looked at her. Family. He had family here that needed him.

Please tell me of the World of the Users. Flynn looked out upon the Grid.

How like Sam you are, curious of worlds you haven't seen but want to experience.

There are Trees, living structures made up of cellular matter, that some of which stand as tall as the legs of a Recognizer. They have a rough Brown outer coating around a cylinder structure and at the top they have branch like structures that have green spade like structures called leaves. Now these absorb light energy to convert nutrients from the soil into fuel.

Are there many of these?

There are... and many different kinds and configurations. some small that can fit into a bowl, while others as wide as a ground transport.

I have books on the subject, do you want to see?

Yes I would.

Then images, data that wasn't her own... Horses... The woman riding next to a man with long dark hair. So in love.

Veronica, do you think Merlin will accept that we are in love.

A sorcerer's job to protect. But love grants it's user the greatest power, to find the strength to overcome all foes before them.

Sadness... Great Evil had to be stopped...

Wait... These were the woman's memories

Trapped, Evil... so alone...

The Prime Merlinian... Heir to the Magic and Powers of Merlin... Balthazar Blake my love you have found him...

A young boy... A bit younger than Sam... Current time... Named... Dave Stutler... NYU Physics 101 Instructor.

Becky... "You are listening to NYU Radio... This is the Becky Barnes Show..."

Veronica... you need to at least have some clothes that will allow you to blend. But make you feel comfortable... Quorra blushed at this...

The symbols in the book... Wait, the were like Master Flynn's..

Quorra looked over at Anna. Needed to Tell Sam...

"Anna wake up..." Quorra shook Anna awake... "Anna!" The young User awoke.

"Quorra... What is it?" Anna was worried as she started to come out of her Sleep cycles.

"I need to speak with Sam." Quorra licked her lips to moisten them... "Now... It has to do with the Clouds around ENCOM and someone finding out how to take control of them." With that Anna given her computer security skills started to think about the threat presented.

"I'll go and get Sam." Anna said as she got out of bed wearing some sweats and a "Han Shot First!" t-shirt and headed out the door.

Quorra reached over onto her back for her disk to retrieve the data from her dreams by sheer instinct and she froze when she felt just her skin.

A moment later Sam walked in. He looked haggard and worried like his father had been on some of the Bad Days where Clu's continue reign just ate into him. Seeing the same look on Sam made her worry.

"Quorra..." Sam said as he sat down on the bed next to Quorra and hugged her. Quorra was still unused to how tactile Users tended to be around each other, but this... This felt comforting. "... don't scare me like that." Quorra felt the warmth of Sam's body against her's. The only memory she had of something like this sort was when in the first few weeks since her arrival on this plain of existence was experiencing a brown out that had occurred in the early morning. The idea of power going out in a sector where Sam lived had scared her. She clung to Sam as he fished out an emergency glow stick.

Quorra had been scared but fascinated by this piece of technology that so reminded her of home as she panicked over the sun not rising in the sky. Sam had wrapped her in his arms and started to tell her a condensed version of how the universe worked on rotational scale. That sun didn't move, but it was the Earth that moved. That the Rotational body they were on had functioned for centuries upon centuries without fail due to it spinning around the Sun since the creation of the world they were on. This had fascinated her as she looked at the glow stick. At that point Quorra decided that she wanted to learn about Nature.

Between the trip to the botanical park, planetarium, and the zoo one weekend turned out to be the best day ever for her and Sam since coming from the Grid. Even some of Quorra's questions that same thought were off in other circumstances, seemed almost at home in those places. Simple curiosity had made Quorra connect with people, including the smaller Users that were with them that day. Though one of the parents had commented that Quorra had a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome when it came to her social interactions of the subjects she was talking about, but they didn't mind in that their own child suffered from it.

Afterwards Sam started reading up on this phenomenon and others like it and as a result, Sam seemed more connected to her as he figured how she saw the world around her. It was like he could anticipate her next move. At first it was scary, but... now...Sam knew how to act and think like an Iso as he taught her to be like a User. Then Quorra's mind started going back over the events prior to her... The woman... clouds... The woman was like her in that out of place feel that she felt everyday in the User World, but the woman had the powers like Master Flynn. What had she been doing searching Quorra's memories?

"Sam... I was on your way to your office to talk about the Clouds over ENCOM." Urgency hit. "The only time I have seen clouds act like that was back on the Grid... Your father stated that in one of his theories that you could control Clouds through..." Quorra became flustered... Then she remembered something... "Sam... There was a person who snuck into your dad's system under the old arcade... who posted some of what he found to the web. I think that there is a person who was able to get though and... "Quorra looked worried. "Sam, I think someone used Tech from the Grid on me at the healing complex." Quorra started to go through her memories.

"What do you mean Quorra?" Sam started to look concerned.

"I think someone used a Data Disk on me and it had some data from the person using it on it." Now she had Sam's full attention.

"Wait... A disk from the Grid is here?" Sam held her by the shoulders. "Quorra... You saw me and Jet take apart the digitizer and move it to ENCOM. I checked the system hasn't been plugged in." This is when Quorra got worried.

"What about before it was unplugged?" Quorra swallowed hard. "Please Sam, I need to use a tablet to show you what I saw before I came to find you." Sam understood. The thought of having a piece of Grid Tech in someone's hands who didn't know how to use it would be devastating. Sam and Quorra still had their rods from the Grid and the thought that someone would rez a weapon such a Grid Tank in the city scared her.

"Okay... I'll go and get a tablet to bring here." Sam said getting up and walking out of the room. Quorra waited for Sam to return. Quorra stared out the window and wondered about Dave Stuter, about who he was and why the symbols on the floor of his lab mirrored the markings Flynn had made for his training circle on the grid.

* * *

The past night Dave had done his best to read through everything that Becky had been able to dig up on the late Kevin Flynn. Other than some information that they had been able to find on the web about Flynn's city project which Dave, Becky, Balthazar and Veronica had been able to confirm as true. Quorra Iso remained a mystery. Add to that ENCOM and sent the police the footage of Dave's face from where his illusion spell had been captured on tape.

So far Sam Flynn had stated that this individual had used some sort of augmented reality technology to back track the steps of Quorra and her co-worker. Given that Dave had fried the camera had made him a person of interest. he needed to tell Quorra and Sam Flynn that he wasn't responsible for the attack. He just accidentally set of the trap that had been set for Quorra.

Dave pulled out his Smartphone and opened up a weather app that did minute by minute streaming weather updates before he cast the biometrical tracking spell Balthazar had used to track down the Grimhold.

This is stupid... Dave thought as he remembered seeing the security guard getting burned by the hidden microwave gun. I shouldn't be doing this. Then Dave decided in his mind: "I have to say I'm sorry about your friend getting hurt, I just wanted to find out what happened."

Then Dave cast the locate spell.

After a moment the clouds slowly started to form along the coastline before starting to descend down. Looking at his Smartphone Dave noticed that image was showing a buildup of the clouds in a specific locality. Then Dave tapped the screen of the phone and started to watch the cloud formation start to change color. The brighter the cloud depth and thickness of the participation of Dave's locater cloud, the more that the center point was show on his phone's screen which was zeroing in on Quorra's location.

Then Dave's phone started ringing as the last image pointed towards a small structure made up of shipping containers. The number said 1-0123456. Dave recognized the number as being a voice over IP address.

"Hey Bennet... So, any calls from the Dean?" Dave said over the phone. Who he heard on the other side got his attention.

"Dave Stutler..." A female voice said. "I think that you were looking for me earlier at the office and shall I say your It-tal-e-an friend was... Sorry... I must be butchering the name of your friend's home sector... Land. Damn it." Dave could practically see the person slapping their hand against their forehead.

"Uh... are you Quorra?" Dave swallowed hard at saying those words.

"If I am, then why are you using an Atmospheric disturbance over me and Sam's dwelling? Is it some sort of tracking algorithm that reorganizes the layout pattern of the condensation of the water and because I am using mine and Sam's own tracking algorithm over you." Dave looked up into the sky to see some light clouds, but no depth that indicated a tracking spell. "Dave... You are standing on the roof of the Golden Dragon Hotel... And your friend Becky is walking up behind you." Dave turned around to see Becky standing behind him.

"Okay... Listen... You have my complete attention now." Dave said looking with worry at Becky. Becky looked at Dave as she realized that something was up given how he was looking at her.

"Dave..." Dave stopped Becky from speaking anymore by raising his hand up and shaking it to warn her not to speak.

"Why were you in the Building after I was attacked?" Quorra said awaiting his response.

"Trying to find you, to talk with you…" Dave mouthed to Becky. 'Find Balthazar and bring him here!' Becky nodded realizing that something was up and it had to do with the person on the other side of the phone.

"Were you the one responsible for hurting me and Sam's friend Martin?" Quorra was asking these questions to figure out if Dave was a threat. "Why is your friend Becky walking away from you?" Dave got scared... Crap, Quorra had mastered a type of remote viewing spell.

"Becky Stop!" Dave called out in fear. Becky stopped cold.

"Listen, whatever powers you have... I'll tell you the truth... I wasn't responsible in you being hurt. Just don't take your anger out on Becky... I love her..." Dave was trembling at this time when Balthazar walked onto the roof.

"Dave what is going on?" Balthazar said in his usual, "What have you done now Dave." tone of voice that stated Dave had bitten off way too much than he could chew with his powers.

"Dave... is that your Master?" Quorra said almost giddy. "Put me on Speaker." Dave did knowing he was screwed if he didn't do it.

"Who are you talking to?" Balthazar said as Veronica also joined them on the roof.

"Hi... My name is Quorra, and I think that you were looking for me earlier." Balthazar looked at Dave with the "Oh, you are up to your eyeballs in it this time."

"Did Dave call you?" Balthazar said concerned.

"No... I called him." Quorra said before she waited for a moment. "Listen... I know that you are not a threat from the memories that I have been able to gather from the member of your group named Veronica. She cared for me while I was injured. It felt so comforting knowing that User with her powers was there for me. I felt safe." With this Veronica walked forward and spoke.

"You saw my memories... How?" Veronica said sensing that this young Mage had quite a bit of talent at her disposal.

"When you looked into my memories... The door swung both ways. I remember the woods where you and Balthazar would go and watch the clouds. I saw Dave and Becky... Yes Dave needs work with his powers. But Master Flynn said that he was the same way in his youth. But Dave's heart is in the right place." Dave looked at his phone wondering what Quorra was about to do.

"So you are not going to hit Becky with a lightning bolt or some Death Ray?" Dave stated with concern.

"No... sheesh... You thought I was..." Quorra's voice grew mortified. "Wait... You thought because I can see Becky's location that was going to hit her with a death ray. I know that it is reference often in your media as a weapon of mass destruction that can destroy a city or be so narrow that a person can be picked off from orbit." About this time Becky was looking scared. "That Master Flynn stated that some individual back in the Eighties decided to place a fleet of these things high in your sky." There was a pause for a moment. "If I am scaring your friend, I don't mean to. I'll disengage the tracking system if you want." This is when a male voice started to speak.

"My name us Sam Flynn, and from what Quorra has told me about you from her experience and my own with the tech you used. I believe her." There was a pause for a momentary beat before he continued. "I believe that you were there to meet me and Quorra, but you wanted to run some recon before we met face to face." This is when Quorra chided in.

"I believe that we should meet someplace neutral where we can put all of our cards on the table and see what the other has found out." There was some faint talk as Quorra commented did she get the proper jargon right. Followed by a outstanding yes.

"What will happen if we decide to attend this meeting?" Balthazar said watching as Becky was able to move from where she was standing and join them.

"That is up to you, the last thing we want is the knowledge and technology that my Dad created to be used for evil." Sam said as Balthazar realized that Sam and Quorra were concerned about this new magic being used for ill means.

"Okay, you have an agreement there." Balthazar said nodding to the group.

"Good, there is a cheesy restaurant nearby that might suit our means. I'll e-mail you the location and meeting time for tomorrow." Sam said waiting for Balthazar's response.

"Understood…" Balthazar said realizing that both groups would be on the defensive until mutual trust could be earned by both sides.

"Good, we plan to see you then." Quorra said before saying goodbye and hanging up.

"That was strange." Dave said growing concerned.

"Yes and they showed the same concern over us as we did them." Veronica said looking at her love.

"Now here comes the question that no one has thought about. Who was the individual who was responsible for attacking Quorra and why?" Becky said as everyone became concerned that there was a third player that hadn't shown themselves and didn't want Quorra around for some reason.

* * *

TBC

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I have been doing my research on the Tron: Evolution games to piece together the events of Clu's rise to power.

The Mechanime concept came from me watching _Red vs Blue_ on Youtube and I decided to show what would happen if the Programs got a look at our world for a change. What would they think of us? I am going to play with this in the next few chapters. But the movies are the classic _Damination Alley_ from Eighties Weekend Movie Cable TV, and _Resident Evil 2_ from the current Weekend Movie Cable TV lineup.

Right now I am working on a name for the young program that touched the Codec with Gibson. I have several in mind, but I'll see how the dressing room scene plays out before I choose a final one. If anyone has any ideas for a name, let me know.

Well, please post a review down below and let me know what you think of the story.


	8. Chapter 7

Well, sorry about taking so long to update this chapter, I have been busy with school and the first week I had a paper to turn in. So far I hope that the new technology and web based services that I will be using this semester will allow me to write more and get some more studying done.

This is a very Grid heavy chapter so just humor me.

I had to write a lot of back story here just so it will come into play in the later chapters.

I would like to thank the folks who had posted the Tron: Evolution game play cut scenes and playthroughs to YouTube. Thanks. You saved me hours worth of playing the games over and over again to pick out plot points and character ideas.

Well on with the story,

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

Gibson looked around the large set of tents that had been set up around the newly rebuilt Bostrom colony. There had been a large number of Programs walking around getting things in order for the former leader from Arjia City, Radia to view this restored colony returned to its former glory. Since the Grid under the command of the User called Jet was in constant state of flux as old structures were returned to their as new states. Even virus infected areas such as Bostrom had been healed. There were even stories spreading around that even the Grand Library in the newly regenerated Arjia City had been restored to its former glory.

Word hadn't gotten out yet about his powers yet, but Gibson had the feeling that his rebellious cycles were about to come back and bite him on his behind. Though he couldn't shake the feeling that Jet just considered the repair of the Grid as something as mundane as an engine repair on a Lightcycle. It was just creepy... That and the guy was killing time searching through the system waiting for something to do as he waited to hear word on Quorra's repair.

What events had happened in the User World that had gotten her injured?

It was as if you were trying to figure out the conversation of someone talking engineering and you were an accounting program. It just went over your head.

So far they had learned that Quorra was in the User World, that she had several User Friends. One of them Anna was a security User who was with Quorra when she had been attacked. Somehow her tattoos, her Iso Glyphs had shielded her from the attack or at least given her enough warning that it had put her in pain. Unfortunately a User SamFlynn had known was also struck with the weapon and had left him injured. Good thing that another User had been there and Gibson had heard that this person might have a lead on who had attacked Quorra. So far they were dealing with Quorra and seeing what other information they could help her remember. What sucked was Quorra had lost her identity disk in the final fight with Clu before she journeyed to the User's World. So somewhere out there, Quorra's disk was lying somewhere with the last bit of data on it of the fight against Clu. So many questions could be answered with that disk.

But it was the fellow program that like him had been cursed with this power to see the User's World he was walking with at this time that had his complete attention. Her name was Sura and she needed some space to wrap her mind around the new role she had just wound up like him, being "The Oracles of the User World."

Gem had been able to track down some of her old clothes after visiting her old crash pad and had given them to Sura just so the Program wasn't constantly dependant on Gibson's jacket. Sura, whose similar frame wasn't too much different from Gem's for the algorithm fabric to adjust to her body. For some strange reason Sura looked a bit older in her compile than she was by a few cycles due to Gem's taste in clothing. Probably it was her body and that great looking face and head of long brown hair she had that made Gibson think of a girl that he had seen at the Grid Games all those ages ago. Though given the number of males looking at her; and how close Gibson and her were walking together to the point of walking hand in hand, some folks in the area thought they were a couple. Even after one of the older programs had given her a monster fractal stick after seeing the hooded moody Iso and the thick attractive brown haired Basic walking down the street nearly hand-in-hand together. Sura had blushed a little when she had been given the fractal. Seeing the program grin had taken the fear out of her eyes and feel somewhat normal with her fellow programs moving about.

For the time being not hearing Radia rant on that her prophecy of a program one day journeying to the World of the Users had started to wear on him and a few of the other programs who were looking over Flynn's texts. But seeing Sura needing a release he had decided to take her into Bostrom just to give her some space to clear her head and show her some of his old stomping grounds.

"So this is the Bostrom Colony?" Sura said as she walked around. Gibson chuckled at this as she moved through the streets. The latest or well last cycles Wolzinack fashions looked great on her. The Blue glow of her beliefs moved next towards the form fitting angular cut of her garments. The V angle cut that separated the upper part of the garment from the leggings made her doubly attractive. Though seeing the tied necklace around her neck, stated that she was an outlands explorer or knew an Iso who had traveled back to the Sea of Simulation to take a container of energy with them as a sign of proposing to another program. Gibson decided to figure out which one she was.

"Yeah... It has to grow on you, but considering that the Sea of Simulation is nearby through the canyons a couple of Metroclicks away. Many of the Isos who had founded this place felt safe given its protected location here in the mountains." Gibson said as he passed by some Graffiti that screamed: Death to Clu. Sura grinned at this and sighed.

"Sea of Simulation..." Sura ran her fingers across her face and sighed softly before she started to cry. "I went there with my boyfriend so we could..." Gibson walked over to her and hugged her. "Gibson... I had an Iso boyfriend... he was from Arjia and had heard about this User ritual that was occasionally done called Skinny-dipping... Um... It was swimming in the nude. Well... we went out to the Sea of Simulation and..."

"And that was the reason that you were found walking on the Game Grid without any clothing because you were swimming with your boyfriend." Gibson shook his head and grinned. "Talk about being caught with your pants down." Sura blushed a little at this.

"Yeah, I just wish that I knew why..." This was when Sura started to get worried. "I mean was it because we were swimming near where the Light of the Users was at... Because I heard a sound prior to..." Gibson moved her towards a bench by the main roadway to help calm her down as she started to remember the events of her being derezzed.

"Hey... Remember hearing Jet... Somehow we had wound up with these powers by accident. He didn't mean for it to happen, it just happened. So just don't blame yourself for being one of the returned, accept that you are back and you have people that care about you." Gibson said as he calmed her down by taking her face in his hand. "Hey from what I have heard from some of the folks reading over the texts in Flynn's little crash pad is that our world isn't all that different than his on a social level. I mean if you were some User like SamFlynn who just realized he was just transported to some other world, you would try to find stuff that was familiar in some way." Gibson paused for a moment before he continued. "Hey Quorra is there and is probably looking for all sorts of stuff that reminds her of the Grid. But we can only see there, but that doesn't mean that we can't understand to some degree what is happening to her there, she is probably just as scared as you experiencing things way beyond your comprehension." Gibson shrugged as he hugged her close. "What if, right now Jet has to fix the coding that allows our two worlds to communicate with each other? Now what if he is a tech head like me… So... I would go through and see if the coding was still intact, and tweak it back to..." Gibson shot up. "Come with me..."

"What is it Gibson?" Sura said as she looked at Gibson.

"I think I know how we can fix the codec and send a message to Quorra. If she has been hurt then maybe we can use these new powers to aid her in the World of the Users" With that Gibson helped Sura up and walked her over to the nearest tech lodge he knew off for editing code.

* * *

Sam, Jet, Anna, and Quorra were all sitting around Sam's kitchen table. The current topic on their mind was how to deal with Dave Stutler. Quorra had gotten dressed and was wearing pair of black blue jeans and one of Sam's dark shirts.

"Okay... Let me get this straight..." Jet was processing the information coming towards him. "... YOU think that this Dave Stutler guy may have come into contact with some of the late Kevin Flynn's research and he and his friends may have wanted to speak to you before..."

"Before all of this craziness started." Quorra completed Jet's sentence. "Yes... I think that there is a third party that wanted to hurt me and I believe that they have been working the same case. I truly believe that they have the same knowledge that Master Flynn had." Sam moved in to add his point of view.

"Jet... My dad created a way to download the human mind to a computer. Not just theory, but practicality... I had my own brain treated as a freaking IPod by the guy that forced my old man to go underground who had gotten his hands on this tech to find a way to locate my dad." Sam paused realizing that he had revealed the dark side to the technology. "But for Quorra, she used the tech to replay a ton of the races she had done on her bike."

"So... If they have Quorra's memories downloaded that would mean that they would have access to ENCOM systems." Quorra nodded at this.

"Crap... Sam... You could have told me about this... I mean they could have had access to ENCOM systems for God knows how many hours." Anna was on the verge of freaking out before Quorra moved over and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Anna... It only records visual and audio data and I don't look at my Keyboard when I type in my Login." Quorra did her best to calm her friend down.

"But it is still a breach, I mean you still have to look at your computer screen and whatever projects you have been working on have been..." Quorra cut off Anna.

"Anna... Unless they know about genetic algorithms, most of my work has been looking at how I can apply the tech to the human genome. I haven't begun on the main work yet. I just have been trying to get all of the data into play so that I can start on the main work of real world application of Master Flynn's theories. I'm still several months off but I have to rebuild much of the gear and that has been Sam and Jet's department." Anna calmed down some.

"Anna, Jet... I believe Quorra here. From what I have discovered is that my Dad had a research team that he kept off of the ENCOM grid for doing special projects on. Now what if this Dave Stutler guy and this Balthazar Blake used to be on my Dad's research team... Well Balthazar to say the least. Think about it, the amount of time we can save by having someone on the old project who knew what my Dad was working on before he had to go off of the Grid." Quorra nodded at this before moving over and showing the information she had found.

"From what I have found is that Dave Stutler, other than being a proctor for teaching physics down at NYU has been working on high energy plasma manipulation." Quorra looked over at Sam as she pulled out a small rod about a foot long. "Given that Plasma is the forth state of matter, it is just being able to manipulate it at a relative temperature where it won't be harmful to those using it." With that Quorra hit a button on the black and silver rod and a second later a three foot long solid katana formed.

"Whoa..." said Anna and Jet who were blinking a few times at the swords that had just appeared right before them. Then Quorra walked over to the garbage can in the kitchen, picked up an old pizza box out of it that had been sticking out and with the blade sliced the box in two right down the middle.

"Sam's father created this technology, but for the most part I can build one of these rods in my sleep. Though I have no idea of the physics behind the technology that makes it function the way it does." Quorra paused.

"Sam... When you said that your old man went past 3D TV and went straight to holodeck, I thought you were pulling my leg." Anna got up and walked over to touch the blade of Quorra's sword. "Um... Quorra can I touch the blade?"

"Yes you can, just don't cut yourself." Quorra moved the sword over and placed it on the table before Anna who was touching it as if it was like finding the Holy Grail.

"How..." Jet just watched as the strange blade seemed to glow along its knife's edge.

"If you can think of a basic design, and you have the technology in one of these rods, then you can make any rendered construct become solid. Hell... I even rode on a motorcycle projected from one of these things."

"A Motorcycle!" Jet was swallowing hard at this time. "You mean that you rode on a motorcycle created by one of these..." Jet's hand was shaking as his mind was spinning.

"Yeah, and Sam proved that he was quite a rider on one of them." Quorra said grinning.

"Sam... Your old man, just made..." Jet was rubbing his hand across his forehead.

"The Lightcycle rod from his Tron game reality..." the two mere mortals were just hit by what was before them. "Yes, Jet and come Hell and or High Water, I am not going to have my Dad's tech abused. So meeting with the Stutler guy and his mentor might give me some insight to what other tech might have been pouched over the years from my Dad's computer." Exhaling for a moment Sam continued. "The last thing I want is some Terrorist winding up with a way to render a semi-automatic rifle ala Ultraviolet on an inbound DC flight." Anna and Jet swallowed hard and did their best to keep their mouths moist just so they could speak. If they didn't do that small action, they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to speak and ask the questions that needed to be asked.

"Yeah..." Anna said feeling the coolness of the blade in her hand and pondered how the blade felt like real steel. "... No wonder, you want to go to lengths to ensure that this doesn't fall into the wrong hands." Jet looked at Quorra.

"So... Is this the big secret that you wanted to tell Anna about?" Jet said as Quorra blushed.

"No... This is just part of it Jet... the rest is..." Quorra was concerned of how to answer next.

"Complicated, you have to see it and believe it to fully understand the world Quorra and my Dad had been living in for the past twenty years."

"So... How big are we talking about Big?" Anna said as she placed the sword back on the table and Quorra reaching over to retrieve it.

"Enough to make this look tame by comparison." Quorra said as she retracted the blade back into its hilt.

* * *

Gem sat in the chair to Flynn's Safe house, it was so strange... The items seemed to scream User. Yet felt so familiar, a lamp was a lamp. A terminal was a terminal, a chair was a chair, and a bed was a bed... and so forth. Gem thought if she had been created as a User, would she see her world in the same way. Sura during their little clothing exchange at her old place had talked about some of the hair styles she had seen one of the users have when Sura experimented with her newfound powers on Gem's data terminal. Gem had been fascinated at watching this female User talk with her potential suitor. The redness of her hair and soft greenness of her eyes caught Gem off some. At first they thought that she was a non-believer of the Users, but what context would a User that didn't believe in themselves be like. Then after listening for a while to them talk about security measures. It had hit that she was a security based User, Quorra had been recruiting Users to fight to save the Grid from destruction and Anna was the Warrior user that she had found. Jet was system repair and diagnostics, Anna was security protocols, and SamFlynn was System Administration. Did all of the female warrior Users wear their hair like that?

Reaching up, Gem let her hair down to emulate the style this User possessed. Even Sura had been surprised as her own long locks of hair though heavy in bulk seems to mesh well with this User hairstyle. It was like the Grid for that little while started to make sense again.

Though the writing on the chest garment must have had some significance to the User. It might have had to do with some User Leader or some member from the same place this particular User had come from.

"Han Shot First!" Who or what was Han? And why would they shoot first?

Other than the fashion the User had on her body, it was the conversation that had stirred the most debate between her and Sura.

This User had seen Quorra as a friend and as an equal. What had Quorra done to earn or garner this kind of respect? Respect that Gem didn't so much envy but fear. This was a warrior of the highest caliber given the threats that she had talked about in dealing with. Michangelo, Trojan, Wyrm, Logger, Ransomware, Zombienet. Threats that made the reign of Clu look tame in the damage they could do to a system. And this User took them down with Ease...

Would Programs loyal to this User come after her for her past actions serving in the Games?

That was when the topic changed between these two users as they talked about SamFlynn and the days around the elder Flynn's disappearance.

SamFlynn probably would have come here to the Grid with his Father given how things were speculated about between the two Users.

Sam probably would have met Quorra at first, which was a definite given how often SamFlynn's father frequented the Grid Games. But would he have met her? Even before the Games had become a Pixel Sport, Gem had worked in the supply room equipping players. Maybe she would have met SamFlynn under those circumstances and they would have gone out for a drink... She had been a young sprite back then... Still compiling her figure up... But... Still attractive...

"Gem..." A voice distracted her as she was snapped back to reality. "Gem... are you well, you look like you were deep in thought." It was Sabi who was touching her on the shoulder. Gem started to realize her surroundings.

"Sorry. Just thinking about things..." Gem said looking about as she noticed that the young Iso Security officer was getting concerned.

"So was one of these things go by the name of SamFlynn?" Gem blushed a little.

"Ah... yes..." Gem looked embarrassed at the thought.

"Talk about having it bad Program..." Sabi sat down next to her and patted Gem's leg. "You know we all desire things that are slightly outside of our reach. I once knew this program that had the greatest behind during the Grid Games. So we had a disk battle together. He moved the most elegant grace I have seen in a program." Sabi was on the verge or sighing a few times. Gem looked at her fellow program and noticed that she was glowing with joy.

"So... What happened?" Gem asked wondering if Sabi had been able to meet this program she had been ogling.

"Well the game went well until he derezzed me." Gem looked away ashamed.

"So it was during the Disk Wars... I am so sorry." Sabi reached over and placed a hand on Gem's shoulder.

"No... The guy was on the other team. I derezzed him later. But I did take some great pleasure at nailing him for that unwarranted derezz. So the love went out of that relationship when I found out he was a jerk." Gem exhaled relieved.

"That is good to hear." There was a pause for a moment. "So, I hear that you have been hanging with Sura... So what deep hidden secretes have you learned about the User World?"

"Well, Quorra knows a Security User that she is good friends with." Gem got concerned. "I am just afraid that Quorra may have told her about me being Zuse's aid..." There was fear in Gem's eyes.

"And if this User finds your behind, you are afraid that this User will have it in for you because of your past actions." Sabi exhaled hard. "Talk about being worried." Then the Iso security program decided to follow a thought path that may have eluded others. "For all you know, she might have been the one who reformatted Anon's face to look like Sam's just so that you wouldn't make the same mistake again." Gem was worried.

"Well she could have at least told Anon about it." Gem said slumping over in the chair.

"Tell me about what?" Anon said walking into the main living area. Gem shot up looking in fear.

"Just that..." Gem was too afraid of the security program at this time to speak even though he looked like SamFlynn as she stopped mid sentence.

"Just that there might be a lead on who reformatted your face Anon." Sabi said looking at her supervisor.

"Well who was it?" Anon moved forward towards the two programs.

"It might have been one of Quorra's User Friends who gave you the new face. It may have done it to help ease the transition during this from the old system to the new." Sabi said theorizing. "Think who would stop a program such as yourself from checking out something strange here on the Grid." Anon grew concerned at this.

"So... If a security detail saw something going down and saw me, then..."

"Might be a good way to keep an eye on the system without anyone knowing and cover up some User using their powers out in public." Sabi said her theory out. "I mean I have heard the stories about Tron taking on the MCP with Flynn. that at one point, Flynn had been able to change his appearance to that of one of the security programs guarding the Solar Sailor that Tron and his love Yori were going to use to escape on. Flynn didn't change back until he was face to face with Tron."

"I heard that story..." Gem said with concern before looking at Anon. "So... what if SamFlynn is using his powers to hide among us?" This is when Anon moved over to his mobile communicator and started to speak into it.

"This is Anon to all security personnel, I need everyone to keep an eye on each other and report anything strange immediately."

"Define strange Sir?" One of the Programs said over the communicator.

"Like your fellow security program having User Powers or seeing two of them." Anon clarified.

"Sir, do you believe that there is a User here among the security detachment?"

"No, but I have the feeling from what has just come up from remembering an old story that I would rather be safe than sorry. If you see one, do not, I repeat do not engage. Just observe and report back... And keep your distance until you learn the User's intent."

"What happens if the User is Hostile sir?" The program said with concern.

"Get the hell out of there and call for immediate backup."

"Understood sir."

"Anon..." Gem said worried. "... What if SamFlynn decided to come here?" Anon watched as Gem started to become concerned about the way that this once hidden location had become a nest of activity for the restored Programs of the Grid.

"Then we will have to ask why he is here." Anon shrugged. "That is all we can do for the time being." With that Anon looked out upon the Grid through the Cliffside window as he felt the weight of his world starting to set on his shoulders. "That is all we can do."

* * *

Gibson slid his hands over the program terminals. For the following Minicycles he had gone through and dug into his and Sura's data disks to see how their code had been modified by the codec. What he had found had surprised him. Though fairly simplistic it was a remarkable bit of programming. After tapping the screen a few times Gibson was able to trace the data feed he and Sura were putting out.

"Sura... I need you to touch the display pane." Gibson said as he started to run a trace subroutine on the data line on the terminal.

"Okay..." Sura said as she touched the screen. On it was displayed a large room with some strangely colored furniture and a staircase behind it leading up to a second level. "Looks like I have made another link to some display in their world."

"Okay... It looks like we are tied into the same feed line as before when you last saw Jet and the female User talk." Gibson said looking over the encryption. The holographic imagery pointed out how Sura's subroutines worked and Gibson occasionally flipped through the memories to see what she was like, but kept it professional as he back traced her coding from before she was derezzed and when she was rerezzed.

"Her name is Anna." Sura said turning towards Gibson. "And I believe that she is smitten with the User known as Jet." That was when Sura's eyes went sad. "Jet..." Sura took her hand off of the display and walked back over to her Identity disk that was mounted on the reader.

"Linux... this feels so naughty..." Sura's recorded voice said as they were neck deep in the sea.

"I know, but this is where I wanted to express my love to you." Linux said as his skin glowed.

They kissed.

"I wonder what Users are like, I mean like as a people." Sura was crying at this time as Jet paused the image with her eyes looking at Linux and the beam of light that signified that there was a User present on the Grid.

"I'm sorry..." Gibson said getting up from the terminal and walking over to Sura. "I can turn off the sound data so that you..."

"No... Let it play." Sura said as she walked back over and activate the data feed again. "I loved Linux... I mean the first time we met it was before the Navibits had been created to..." Gibson chucked at this.

"Yeah I remember the Navibits... Designed by Flynn himself to prevent the Isos from walking into restricted areas of the Grid and being harmed in the process. The one I had tended to be a little bossy, but it prevented me from getting mugged a few times while looking for shelter." Sura giggled at this some but it was a release from the pain of her past. "What's so funny?"

"Well Linux and I met while he was looking for shelter. I had broken up with my last boyfriend and..." Sura sat down on the terminal. "Linux was looking for a place to rest." There was a pause. "I just didn't want to be alone, and I offered him a meal. I just felt good having someone to talk to... He helped me get on my feet. Feel strong again for myself as his programming started to congeal together during that first cycle of his life." Tears were returning to Sura's eyes. "When the Navibits were introduced, he brought his over for me to look at. At first I thought it was a bit annoying, but after awhile it just grew on me. That and we had adventures on parts of the Grid I didn't know existed. Half the time I was scared, but when we were not running from danger or the authorities, it felt great. Like exceeding our deign specs made us stronger. Wiser. Closer to the world of the Users" Sura looked back at the holographic image. "I miss him."

Gibson looked at her and understood. "I once knew this program, kinda of spunky like that. Stole one of my Gridbikes, raced the fool out of the engine. Got in trouble so much that even Tron had a file on her. Mostly for reckless driving. Breaking into restricted areas, picking on programs three times her size. But she as a good friend to have considering that she had quite a few friends between the Isos and the Basics."

"So what was her name Gibson?" There was a beep from the system as a diagnostic completed.

"Whoa... I think I got the codec up." Gibson said searching through information.

"Do you think we can send a message to the User World?" Sura said as she looked up at the large terminal screen on the wall. That was when two voices spoke behind them.

"So Gibson... You are the one who told that Iso Champion where to find us?" Gibson turned around in his chair to see a very ticked off program with a long mane of orange-red hair glyphs covering the left side of his face and wearing an old Grid Games uniform.

"Blaze... What are you doing here?" Blaze's yellow Grid uniform bellowed as two other programs came in through the door.

"Bosh and I believe I don't remember your name, but I swear that you must be dumb because you are running with this piece of obsolete software." Gibson said moving to place himself between Sura and these three disgraces of Grid Players.

"Well Gibson, you are still snarky as ever." Blaze said looking around the work station. "So... I see that you are helping the User Worshipers in their attempt to find a way to their world." Bosh given his large bulk started knocking over equipment.

"Well not exactly... One did get through..." Gibson said as he looked down to see that his Baton lying on the floor.

"You are lying Iso... If a program had gotten through it would have been a member of Clu's Army..." Blaze chuckled some. But look around you... It is a User. And only a User that would have been dumb enough to resurrect a program like you." Blaze took his Baton out and changed it into a Male Jai club.

"So... taking up Male Jai I see, you needed some place to put all of that anger into after you derezzed Council member Jalen." Just a little closer and Gibson could reach his Baton and form it into a Staff.

"Well, I did have to do something in the containment prison while waiting for my case to be heard." There was a pause. "Even under the Clu regime, they sought to keep me in there... Because as I quote Clu here: You are unpredictable as a program, ruthless, yes, unpredictable a constant. You will stay here until I need you." This is when Blaze's anger started up again. "Do you know how many cycles I spent there? Do you?"

"Oh... Say a thousand cycles given my last look at the chronometer." Just a little closer.

"One thousand-three hundred and ninety-five cycles Gibson." Blaze said as he blindly smashed down his club on the console and crushing Gibson's baton to pixels as the club drove its way into the floor. Gibson looked away as sparks flew. "So... what would be an appropriate punishment for you Iso? See I had to break out of there during the confusion the rains had caused. And the only thing on my mind was seeing you're behind derezzed, again..." That was when Blaze and his pals saw Sura pressed against the monitor.

"Oh... you are trying to protect her..." Blaze shoved Gibson into Bosh's arms. "Well, aren't you a beautiful program." Blaze was grinning in interest at Sura.

"Stay away from her!" Gibson said as he struggled against Bosh's grip.

"Or else what?" Blaze said turning towards Gibson, "Some User is going to Derezz my behind."

That was when Gibson saw a creature move up to the display. Most of its face was white, but it had spots of black that covered what looked like to be horns and a section of black that like a mask covered its left eye. But it was the size of its teeth that was the most frightening thing about it other than the basal growling sound it was producing. Gibson swore that half of this creature's body was mouth as it bore it's fangs towards Blaze.

"Blaze... I would suggest that you let Sura go NOW!" Gibson said as Bosh was one the verge of relieving himself from where he stood along with his compatriot holding Gibson's other arm.

"You should listen to him Blaze." Bosh said quaking where he was standing as he was slowly wetting waste energy from his pants.

"What do you mea..." Then the creature started to bark loudly... the holographic projection that had been added to the image made the misshapen creature's face emerge from the screen. With a shove Sura knocked Blaze's arm into the image as it slowly started to twist around. Blaze's Male Jai club was torn from his arm as the creature guttery started to bite at him with furious force and realizing that Blaze still had an arm and the creature's bared teeth to them as it was sizing up Blaze for a meal or something to make a quick snack out of. Blaze with what pure instinct he had in his programming took over as the disgraced Grid Games player and his two ruffian pals booked out the door screaming: "MONSTER!" Knowing that this creature was out for their pixels and was going to get them one way or another if it had to destroy everything in its path to get to them.

After a moment when the creature realized that Blaze and his pals were gone the creature calmed down and licked it's maw of a mouth before yawning and starting to pant. It looked around the room as it studied Gibson and Sura occasionally tilting its head side to side to make sense of the room they were in.

Sura who was the closest to it noticed something hanging around the creature's neck.

"Gibson..." Sura was looking at the necklace pendant on the creature. "What was the name of the creature that was guarding Quorra after she was attacked?" The creature was panting as he looked at her as it was waiting for a command for what to do next.

"Listen, I would suggest that we..." Gibson moved slowly over to the controls.

"Gib... What was the creature's name? What did they call it? Martin..."

"It was Marvin... Martin was Sam's friend who had gotten hurt... Marve or Marvin was the name of the..." Sura pointed towards the pendant around the creature's neck.

"Marvin..." Gibson looked up at the creature's face. "You're Marvin..." To confirm this statement of its identity to all present the creature Woofed in response.

"I think Woof means Yes..." Sura said grinning. With that Gibson cleared his throat.

"Okay... Quorra's protector in the User World just saved our collective behinds." After a moment Gibson thought of how would you communicate with a creature like this and not get eaten in the progress, then he decided to go with the obvious: "Okay... Marve... We come in peace..." The creature responded with a resounding "Woof"

"I think this is the User equivalent of a Program Bit." Sura said looking at the creature.

"Well it has the vocabulary of one." Gibson said as the creature looked at him with its head tilted sideways. About that time a security team came rushing in.

"Heard that there was a disturbance in..." The security program stopped cold as the creature woofed at him.

"Yes... There was, I think that if you go and follow the programs screaming and running for their lives that came running out of here are responsible for the incident. Though, I think we got some help from the User world... Don't we Marve." Gibson said as the creature responded to him and woofed again.

"What in the User is that thing?" The security program said looking at the creature.

"May I present Marve. Quorra's protector in the User World." The creature Woofed in pride in its name being spoken.

"If that is Quorra's protector... I wouldn't want to make that thing angry." Some more security personnel were coming in.

"Well tell that to Blaze... I think he is already halfway to Tron City with his pals in fear that this creature might be after them." Sura said turning to the creature that had saved their lives.

* * *

Anon after hearing reports of the creature that had saved Gibson and Sura's lives was on his way to meet with them as was Radia and Council Member Jalen. Word had gotten around that Quorra's protector had saved the lives of the two programs a large crowd had gathered, but having the security staff place up barriers proved that word was growing. Additionally given that Blaze and his two compatriots Bosh and Bulk had been demanding to be locked up after they were screaming that this creature was going to derezz them on one bite and feast on their bits had put the fear into many programs wanting to disrupt things on the Grid.

The occasional Woof sound the creature would make had frightened some of the Programs who had gathered back to a safe distance behind the barriers after some confirmation was done in that the being only attacked if it detected hostile actions towards it or those it was told to protect.

Anon could see that Gem was nervous but she swallowed her pride as she walked next to him. Gem had made up her mind to confront her fears about the Users and had told Anon that she wanted to confess her wrongs towards the Users to find out why she had returned. Anon reluctantly agreed, but seeing that on some level she still saw not his face but that of SamFlynn. Gem had fallen in love with the User on some level and she couldn't process why she had been returned. Gem had started to do things that Anon had thought innocent enough at first as her trying to get back on her feet, but it started to turn into something more urgent for her, like she was being judged for her past actions in her mind and no level of reassurance had been able to sway her from this course. Though seeing her going to the I/O towers for services and spending hour trying to contact SamFlynn in vain just to put her mind at rest.

Then there was Sura. Once Gem had met the Program and her powers to view the User's World at first had been a welcome release from the contact with the Tower Guardians who had realized that the former Female Party Program was going through a strong crisis of faith. Sura's powers had shown Gem the World of the Users, but Gem had learned from these encounters that SamFlynn had fallen in love with the Iso Quorra. Though the talk about Quorra and her User allies had frightened Gem especially after learning that Quorra had befriended a warrior user named Anna.

During one of Gem's sleep cycles, Anon had been awakened to Gem's screaming as she was soaked from bleeding energy from her pixels from the image of warriors loyal to Anna had come for her to be derezzed. Anon had comforted Gem and eased her back to sleep but the concept that she was feeling the weight of her past sins being brought to lay bare before her had been the roughest part of them bonding. Anon had cared about her, ever since Anon had been Rezzed into being, he had been focused about protecting the Grid and hadn't thought all that much about having a relationship. But now... There was something there in the former Siren that he felt that given enough time, she would love him and not the face that he bore that looked so much like the User she so very much wanted to speak to and say: "I'm sorry for everything."

Walking to the coding station Anon watched as several scholars and researchers started to use their combined knowledge of the new found texts of the Flynn's library to communicate with the creature that Sura had made contact with along with Gibson.

"So tell me so far what have you learned about this being?" Anon said as the creature looked at him through the display.

"Well, given its behavior, I believe that is the User Equivalent of a Bit or a Navibit." Dumont said as Sura was doing her best to communicate with the creature.

"So the creature responds in saying Yes or No." Dumont winced a little at that.

"More or less, but given its guttural terms and it's mouth's design, it seems to have a wider vocabulary, though it's concept of yes and no also includes a "What" question input."

"Three Commands?" Anon said shocked at this.

"Yes... And it perceives hostile tones of voice and physical actions as being seen as aggressive." Dumont said as Jarvis was looking over the text before him.

"I believe I have narrowed down that category of creature design." Jarvis looked over the text closely. "I believe the creature is either of the Boston Terrier or the French Bulldog family." There was a pause... "One of these species was developed for companionship and the other was designed for Pit Gladiatorial Combat." There was a cough from Jarvis. "Unfortunately, I do not know which version we are dealing with so we are going with caution and assuming it was the one designed for gladiatorial combat given past witnessed behavior."

"Gladiatorial..." Gem sputtered out as she looked at the creature on the screen. "As in made for combat, as in designed to derezz!" Gem swallowed hard as Marve tiled his head to the side to look at her and started to whine at her.

"Gem I think that Marve understands you and is concerned about your well being." Sura said as Gem turned towards the screen.

"Marve, I am sorry about what I have done to Quorra... I know that my actions in participating in the Clu regime in sending programs to be derezzed in the games..." Gem was breaking down emotionally before everyone in the room. "I know that I have had a loose subroutine on my morals. I have been opportunistic in seeking to do things for my own well being... Marve I know that you are some basic protection program." Gem looked away in shame as she wiped tears from her eyes. "I do not wish to be derezzed again. I know that User Jet was obeying orders given to him by User SamFlynn." Radia moved over and touched Gem on the shoulder. "Please tell me why I was rerezzed?" Marve's head turned to the side with concern before looking away at something before looking back. "Was it due to something I said SamFlynn. Or Quorra while I worked supplying gear to players at the Grid Games..."

"Child... be calm... The order of things will reveal itself in time." Radia said as the former partygirl program started to face up to having to take responsibility for her past actions.

"Marve... Please find Quorra and tell her that I am sorry for calling her an Ignoramious Subroutine Organism... Please tell Quorra that I'm..." With that Marve gave off a huff and shook himself a few times before moving away.

"Gem what did you do?" Gibson said realizing that Marve was no longer in the view of the display. Gem looked up in horror. Anon moved over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder before Gem fell into his arms crying.

"Easy... Gem... I'll be here for you." Gem buried herself deeper into Anon's muscular arms fearing that the Users had forsaken her.

A moment later a sound could be heard as someone walked over to the screen.

"Merve... what is it boy?" A female voice spoke as Marve could be seen going on and off of the screen. It took a moment for Anon and Gibson to recognize the voice.

"QUORRA!" The two programs called out. At that moment Quorra looked down at the terminal screen and her eyes grew wide.

"Gibson?" Then she looked over to see "Ra... Radia..."

"Quorra, Child..." Radia spoke as Quorra fell backwards on the couch in shock. "How is the User World?" There was a sound as a door noisily slid open.

"Quorra, listen, I went to go and get Jet and Anna's coffee and your fruit smoothly that you..." There was a pause from the voice on the screen that sounded very much like Anon's. "Quorra, is there something wrong?"

"Sam... How good is Jet at system repair?" Quorra was on the verge of tears...

"Pretty good, I saw him once repair a hard drive and bring it up again after it had been run over by a truck. Why?"

"Hard drive... like the one holding the grid?" Quorra was shaking.

"Yes, why..." There was a pause... "You are looking over what Jet has retrieved from my Dad's old server."

"Actually SamFlynn Quorra is speaking to a few of her friends and Programs she knows from the Gird." That was when SamFlynn's face appeared on the screen after Radia finished speaking.

"Okay..." SamFlynn's face was in shock. "I knew Jet was good, just didn't know that he was that good."

"Tell me SamFlynn. Is the creator there with you?" Sam looked around at the screen before him.

"Quorra, could you help me here. I mean these are your friends." Quorra nodded some. "Need a moment Quorra?" Quorra nodded again. "Listen... could you give us some time. Quorra is still in a little shock here as well as I given the amount of damage the Grid received after my father stopped Clu."

"SamFlynn... What has happened? How badly was the Grid damaged before you had your User Friend Jet use his powers to heal the Grid?" Radia said as Gem looked at the User SamFlynn.

"The Creator died stopping Clu..." Quorra said with tears in her eyes. "His last act was ensuring that Sam and I got out as he pulled Clu into himself destroying them both." Quorra latched onto SamFlynn as if she was afraid she was going to derezz.

"We had the memorial little over two/three weeks ago here." There was a sigh from the Creator's son. "For the most part I have been doing my best to fight for my Father's Legacy alongside Quorra here."

"Then we have much to talk about?" Radia said realizing that much had changed and the price that had been paid to save them all had it own toll too.

* * *

For the past hour Sam and Quorra sat before the monitor as they told their side of the story and Radia, Anon, Gem, Gibson, Dumont, and Jarvis told their side of things.

It was a lot to take in on both sides.

Quorra had stated that Flynn had done his best to teach her about the User World. Which surprisingly other than some nuanced things that she had come across it was no different than living on the Grid in the Pre-Clu cycles? There were problems, difficulty; it was like her first days of existence of being an Iso, but having Sam there had helped. There was bias and hate, but also love and compassion. Radia had been a little crest fallen by those words after seeing her Utopia taken down a little, but seeing it somewhat now like that of her home city of Arjia or Tron City.

Sam spoke that there had been a User in his world that had been like Clu going by the name of Hitler. It had taken a great war to defeat the man and his death was one of the things that finally brought some of the insanity to an end. Then it had taken years to put sanity back to the world as the aftermath was dealt with. For some of the programs there, this was a comforting yet disturbing thought to have that the User World had experienced the same thing they had gone through.

During all of this, Gem who had been nervous to speak to the User SamFlynn started to speak. Sam didn't look at her with anger, but understood that she had been through a lot on her end. Though he wondered why her hair had changed, then she stated that she had copied the User Anna's appearance some just that she wondered if all Female Users did that to their hair. Sam just grinned at her. Quorra moved in with a grin and said that Anna's hair style was something she was used to due to her being from Texas, but there had been different styles of hair that Quorra herself had seen so if Gem thought she looked good in it, then she should run with it. Gem blushed a little at this, though she showed concern about Anna's warrior status after she let it slip that for a while they had been eavesdropping on Anna and Jet's conversation between the two of them.

"Wait... How much did you hear Jet and Anna Talking about?" Sam said looking at Gem.

"Uh... enough to know that they are in love with each other, but are afraid to speak of it to the other." Gem said as Quorra rolled her eyes.

"Looks like I have some more work to do on those two." Quorra said shaking her head.

"Wait... you have been trying to help Anna hook up with Jet?" Sam said rubbing his forehead.

"Yes Sam... I have been trying to get Anna and Jet to confess their feeling for each other. And before I was injured I was in the process of being Anna's Wing chick to assist her in establishing the steps needed for Courtship with Jet." Quorra said turning towards Sam.

"So how far were you at?"

"I believe Anna was about to have me plan the meal preparations when I was assaulted by the heat beam being targeted on me."

"So... that was what you were talking about when you were about to be partially derezzed?" Gem moved into the sentence of the two beings before her. Quorra turned to look at the program on the screen.

"It didn't feel like derezzing, it felt like someone was shattering my outer layers of my flesh off slowly." Quorra shook some at her memory of the incident. "My skin still tingles from where it was heated and there is a low itch from where my glyph is." Quorra rubbed her arm.

"Do you want me to put some cream on it?" Sam said concerned.

"Not at this time Sam..." Quorra looked back at the screen. "Gem... Anon... Gibson..." Several of the programs looked at Quorra and Sam. "Listen... there have been events unfolding here in the User World." Quorra paused as Sam realized where she was going.

"In the last few hours we have learned that there are individuals who might have gotten their hands on some Tech from the Grid." Sam said before letting Quorra explain things from her point of view.

"The Users don't have Render Batons or Identity Disks here other than the ones we brought back with us..." Quorra paused for a moment before she continued "In the last few hours, I believe that someone has gone to the Grid and brought back technology from there and is using it here. So far they have been able to manipulate the weather on a controlled level, but I don't know what else they might be able to do with the gear they may have taken from the Creator's system." This was when Sam added his bit of knowledge he wanted to give the Programs of the Grid.

"Yeah, one of them used and Identity Disk on Quorra to download her memories. We don't know what they grabbed, but Quorra due to her being from the Grid was able to get some data off from the Disk and was able to transfer it to her mind. It is a little fragmented, but Quorra thinks that these individuals are not a threat to us. But given that my Dad's terminal was unguarded here from some time before I was able to move it to a secure location, I don't know if someone else might have access while my Dad was missing.. Given my past experience whenever someone has a tech that allows them to do something new, it takes about the same time for them to figure out what they might use it for to do some bad things." Sam said as Anon started to speak up.

"Well SamFlynn, I have my security teams being on the lookout for any User activity giving the chaos that has been happening due to so many programs being rezzed back into existence here. There have been rumors mostly by my own staff that you might have returned with other Users to oversee the final system repairs." This caught Sam by surprise.

"Wait..." Sam blinked a few times looking at his program self on the screen. "You think that there might be Users in the system?" Anon realized that with Sam that there might be a new threat to the system.

"Yes, mostly given that my face looks like yours. Gem came up with the theory that if you had returned that looking like me would allow you to move about unnoticed given that I am the current Head Program for System Security." Sam started to think hard about what to say next.

"Anon... Keep doing what you are doing. If another User shows up, let me know and I'll do the same thing on this end to let you know if anyone is heading your way." Then something hit Sam as he looked over at the camera. "Anon... How many camera video feeds are you getting?" Quorra turned towards Sam.

"Sam what are you thinking?"

"Quorra, if Anon and your friends on the Grid have access to video feeds from here, then I think we can at least give ourselves an edge when we meet with Dave Stutler and his friends."

"What do you mean?" Anon spoke up to the User.

"Well, from What Quorra has been able to dredge out of her mind, is that there might be two factions are dealing with here. Dave and his friends who might be part of the old ENCOM Grid Project, and another faction that might want to use this tech as weapons." Sam spoke following a line of thought.

"Sam you think that this other faction might show themselves during the meeting?" Quorra realized what Sam was thinking.

"Yeah, I mean between Jet and Anna and you and me plus the two Batons we have we might stand a fighting chance against any tech that might get thrown against us. But I would like to have a few more eyes covering the scene." Quorra looked down at the screen.

"You mean, use Anon and the Programs we can trust on the Grid to be our lookouts so that if anyone sneaks up on us we can have some warning before hand." Sam nodded at this.

"Gibson, since you are the resident hacker of this bunch, if I could get you the video feeds, could you rig it so that a few terminals can be modified to accept the data from here." Anon knew where this was going.

"You want us to monitor the security feeds and give you a heads up if anyone is going to make any hostile actions to you." Sam nodded at this.

"Yes..." Sam looked over at Quorra. "Looks like we have to bring in Anna and Jet to handle all of this." Quorra bit her lip some.

"I wanted to bring Anna in on the fact that I'm an Iso just that I wanted to show her the Grid first." Sam patted Quorra on the shoulder as he looked at the chronometer at the top of the screen.

"Yeah, I would have... Crud... Xanatos..." Sam started to sprint away.

"The Video Conference!" Quorra realized the time. "Listen... I'll get back with you all in a bit. Sam has a meeting with a firm to get me some research materials for my Genetic Algorithms project." Quorra placed the tablet down.

"Is there anything we can do on this end to aid you Quorra or SamFlynn?" Gem called out from the screen.

"Yeah... Be ready!" Quorra said as she and Sam sprinted up the Stairs to get Sam changed for the call.

"Understood." Gibson said realizing that there was much about the User World that needed to be understood. But like things on the Grid, knowing that you were running late for something always meant that you rushing to get something done at the last moment just so that you didn't look like a fool to others.

* * *

Next chapter there will be some Gargoyles references and hardware mentioned in the next chapter along with a slew of Xena references.

Also, Radia is going to be run through the wringer some with some of the revelations she is going to have through Quorra.

Dave is going to return next chapter and trust me, I have been watching every film that has Jay Baruchel in it so there is going to be a ton of geek moment playing out.

Please leave a review below.


	9. Chapter 8

Note to readers, I have delayed it the most for this chapter, but... I am sorry to say it. There will be sexual situations in this chapter.

There I said it.

I might have to up the rating after this chapter.

So enjoy the story, I might tone it down later, but what happens next well... I had no control when writing the scene; it just came out this way.

Hearns

* * *

Chapter 8:

* * *

Dave couldn't sleep.

Every time that Dave closed his eyes, he kept seeing Quorra Iso come after him in a cheesy Sci-Fi tweaked Jedi Knight-esq Xena the Warrior Princess costume. The sound of yodeling echoed through the air as Quorra swung her chakram at his head and each time Dave jumped awaked.

After Chackram decapitation number twelve, Dave had had it and got up. Becky who was sharing the bed with him was awakened. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she saw how Dave looked. And he looked like crap.

There was a long pause as Dave started to look at her.

"Dave, what's wrong?"

"Just that I keep thinking of When Quorra called and the way that she just saw where we were at." There was a pause Dave just tried to put his feelings into words. "Becky... I don't know what I would do without you." Becky reached up and touched Dave on the shoulder.

"Dave... When I saw you when we were kids, you had a unique way to look at the world." This was when she grinned. "Hey you took on one of Morgana's foot troops armed with nothing but a Tesla coil, a vintage Car and a trunk full of batteries." Dave chucked some at that.

"Yeah and all you needed to do was kick a satellite dish off some so that old Morgana wasn't at full strength." Dave said remembering the experience.

"Well, if Quorra was born in a world of advanced Science then you should see magic from her point of view. Quorra doesn't see your powers as being magic, but based in science." Dave tilted his head sideways some.

"What do you mean Becky?" Becky Grinned.

"Well I was talking with Veronica and Balthazar and they said that it all comes down to you guys controlling molecules and energy on a quantum level with your minds. Given that Quorra was practically raised by Sam's father who had the same powers as you guys, why not approach her with that. Explain your powers in science terms." Dave relaxed some at this.

"Yeah, but I still keep seeing her do that Xena stuff with that disk of her's." Becky shrugged at this.

"Hey... from what I have read about Flynn was that he tended to be one hell of a Dodge ball player. So think, Quorra probably used the disk as being her world's version of a dodge ball." Dave winced at that image.

"Becky... You know that I sucked at Dodge ball when we were in Gym Class."

"Yeah... I remember." With that Becky reached down and started to pull up her shirt. "And seeing that Quorra is no longer this fearful warrior woman in your mind, she is probably just like any girl." Dave started to blink a few times realizing that Becky wasn't wearing a bra.

"Becky... What are you..." with that Becky leaned in and kissed him as she slowly with one hand started to remove her underwear.

"Giving you something else to think about, I have seen her world and it kinda of reminds me of when I the one you live in." Dave started to understand Quorra and Becky a little more.

"Magic and any significantly advanced science could be considered the same thing, It's called Clark's' Law." Dave said as Becky started to work on his shirt.

"Dave... I know that you love me, just that seeing your world and Quorra's, you are just the same and I wouldn't mind seeing the flip side of that." Dave just blinked a few times realizing that he was just dealing with another apprentice. Quorra was the reverse of him in her origins, being born in a world of technology based magic but still fighting on the side of light like Dave was. Then it hit.

"Becky... I think I know how she did her little remote view trick." Dave bit his lip and reached for his phone. Becky slid up in the bed and grabbed one of the pillows. "She probably used the footage she had of me when I was in the building. Did a facial recognition search on the web for past employees and from there got my cell phone number and from that looked at the number I called the most." Becky was grinning at this. "Then she used the cell towers to locate me through the phone and noticed that you had your phone on you. Poof... Quorra-cam." Becky leaned in on him and planted a Spiderman kiss on him.

"See... once you relax you can think clearly." Dave turned around to look at Becky.

"So... you want to help me relax?" Becky just grinned.

"And then some, Dave... I love you and... I really want to do this with you." Becky just let the pillow fall away and Dave swallowed hard some.

"You know this is going to be my first time." Dave said turning to look at the wall.

"Yeah... Mine too..." Dave looked back at Becky...

"You mean... I mean with all the people you hang with, I thought you..." Dave was in shock some...

"I hang with people, Dave... They are my friends. I don't sleep with them. Hell Ramon that really hot guy that you see me hanging with... he's gay and in a relationship. The most engrossing thing I talk with him about is shoes. But you... "Becky blushed a little "I love..." Becky got uncomfortable. "Sorry... I'm a little embarrassed here." With that Dave kissed her.

"Don't be... I really like you..." Dave winced as his hand accidentally brushed against her breast. "Sorry..." Becky Blushed.

"Dave..." Becky adjusted herself some. "Want to explore, you are the first guy that I have really liked to... want to touch me."

"Really!" Dave leaned back. "So... How do you want to do this?"

"Uh... I really didn't think this through all the way." Becky looked embarrassed.

"Well, how about you be on top, this way if I screw up you can get off." Becky grinned at this.

"Okay... just be gentle... This is my first time too." With that Dave kissed her before sliding his pajama bottoms off.

"Okay... Well I apologize before hand for all of the weird faces I am going to make."

"How weird?" Beck said leaning over him.

"I don't know... Just apologizing beforehand." Becky blushed at Dave for being Dave.

"Okay Apology accepted Dave."

"Thanks Becky..."

* * *

Balthazar Blake looked out the window at China Town. It had been ages since he had been in this part of Los Angeles, given that Balthazar had been there during the period of the Gold Rush. In the recent years, Balthazar had been there off and on through the years. He still remembered the place where the old orange groves used to be back in the thirties. Well that was before the developers moved in. But there were places that he still remembered from those days. Though he was there when Pinks opened, talk about a good hot dog.

Quorra had gone from being an enigma to being something else. A possible ally.

With that Balthazar pulled out his magical text out of his pocket and unfolded it several times from its pocket edition to the full bound text version.

Sitting down on the table Balthazar started to flip through the pages pertaining to the prophecy of the Prime Merlinian.

Defeat Morgana and her most powerful followers. Check!

Learn the ancient Magics of Merlin. Currently in progress.

Find the Warrior of Light...

Warriors of Light...

Balthazar started to look for an image of what these Warriors of light looked like through the text. When he flipped to a page with an image of them he stopped cold.

The Black armor and the white slashes across them looked like to be... the clothing patterns that Sam and Quorra wore while they were in the computer world.

The prophecy didn't mean they were warrior to fight for the light; they were made of the light!

Sam and Quorra were the first two Warriors of the Light given the images on the page. There were others... But given that they were either from the Grid or here would mean that the meeting tomorrow would be of significance for both worlds.

That would also mean that Morganians would stop at nothing to throw a wrench into this plan.

With that Balthazar woke Veronica and decided to get Dave and Becky involved.

* * *

Dave stared at the ceiling still dealing with the rush...

"Wow!" Dave said as he felt Becky's naked body in his arms.

"Yeah... you can say that again... I mean... Other than the "ouch" staring out... Wow... I mean I didn't know that you could levitate." Becky said impressed with their first time doing the Shakespearian Beast of Two backs.

"I'm still learning to do it, but I think doing it on the ceiling by accident was great." Becky leaned over and snuggled her head on his chest.

"Yeah... I think the folks above us think that a pair of large owls that had been let loose in the room or a gymnastics team was doing back flips in here." Becky said looking at the rather large dent they had made in the ceiling.

"Yeap... got to fix that before Balthazar comes in." Dave reached up and with a wiggle of his fingers slowly started to flex the broken plaster back into place.

"Listen as you mend the ceiling, I am going to get a shower." Becky said sliding out of bed and walked naked into the bathroom.

"Yeah..." Dave said with a grin as he watched the cracks slowly move back into a solid piece a little at a time. Between what he and Becky had done, Dave felt that he could face Quorra Iso without fear. Then he heard a scream.

Bolting out of bed, Dave Rushed towards the Bathroom door ready to fight off whatever threat was attacking Becky. Then as he burst through the door he saw Becky jumping out of the shower with her teeth chattering.

"The Water is Ice Cold!" Dave looked at how hilarious this scene looked as they both laughed. Becky covered her breasts with her hands as the water kept running. "Dave what is it?" Dave looked at her as he walked over to her and reached into the shower and tapped the shower head a few times then hit the knob with the side of his fist before placing his hand under the water stream.

"Try it now Becky." Dave said as Becky moved over and placed her hand into the shower then slowly took his hand and pulled him in with her.

"I will Dave..." With that they started to bathe each other and enjoyed this moment together seeing that at this point they were deeply in love and at some point in the future hoped that Balthazar and Veronica would be at their wedding. Heck, Dave hoped that Balthazar would say "Will you marry me?" Veronica. The guy only had to wait nearly a millina to do that and given how Dave and Becky were in their relationship, Veronica seemed to tell Balthazar to cut them some slack. Heck Dave was doing research in his spare time to help Balthazar get the hint of helping pick a place where he could find a ring for Veronica.

After a while of getting clean and drying off there was a knock on the door. Dave still in a towel walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. It was Balthazar and he was holding the Grimmorum in his hands. Quickly Dave grabbed a pair of jeans and underwear from the closet and closed the door on the Bathroom to allow Becky some privacy as he slid in her backpack for her to get dressed.

"Becky... Balthazar is at the door, I'm putting your stuff in here so that you can put something on in private."

"Okay Dave." Becky said as she wrapped a towel around herself behind the door.

With that Dave opened the door as Balthazar started through the door then was stopped as the barrier spell slowed his movements to the speed of someone going for a swim in peanut butter.

"Dddaaaaaavvvvvveeeeeee." Balthazar said as Dave with a tweak waved his hand over the watch that he had thumb tacked to the wall by the door.

"Sorry I have to turn off the security system."

"Gooooooddddd move Dave." Balthazar said as he slowly started to move back to normal speed.

"Hey you taught me to have a barrier spell up. So I placed a spell that slowed down the entry of people entering through a door just so I knew it was you." Veronica grinned at this as she walked through the door after Balthazar.

"See that you have been practicing your magic." Balthazar said as he looked over Dave's Security system. "A time dilation spell hooked to a proximity approach spell. Very interesting."

"Hey after you said that Horvath's apprentice did the little impersonation thing, I decided to create a security system that delays people coming in, I'm in the process of the tweak of the intent stuff." Dave said as he tapped his slightly singed dragon shaped ring against.

"I have noticed." There was a pause as Balthazar motioned for Veronica to come through.

"Well what is so important that you come knocking on my door at some Ungodly hour in the morning?" Dave said moving into the bedroom and started to flip sheets back into place to make the room presentable. The smell of sweat was still fresh in the air but with a quick masking spell the scent went away as Balthazar placed the tome of sorcery down on the table.

"Well Dave, I have been thinking about Quorra and where she is from." Balthazar opened the text up to a page where a strange group of armored soldiers stood in a group. "Take a look at the knights on the page. Now tell me what sticks out about them other than looking mean." Balthazar said as Dave started to study the image then it.

"Wait... The symbols look like the knight guy that Sam's Dad used to run with."

"Yes Dave and that means that if you read the inscription that pertains to these guys is that they are very powerful allies." This was about the time Becky came out of the bathroom dressed.

"What about Quorra?" Becky said getting the last half of the conversation.

"Becky... Quorra and Sam happen to be Good Guys... I mean take a look. The armor of where Sam went to and Quorra is from means that they are Good guys." This was when Balthazar cleared this throat.

"As in Good Guys who happen to think that you decided to microwave one of them. But Good Guys none the less whom we have to work with." Balthazar watched as Dave responded to the reaction to this new information.

"Okay, we have someone who doesn't want to kill us." Dave said looking at the image on the page and saw several types of drawn weapons and at least two flying what looked to be mechanical gliders. "Now what?"

"Now we work on your speaking and oratory skills." Veronica said grinning. "You are a teacher after all, it is now time that you use those skills to teach Sam and Quorra that you want to be their friend."

"Man... Why couldn't it be a teaching position where I just have to read from a script I know and not make it up on the fly?" Dave said placing his hands into his face.

"Because, it is your destiny and I know that you can do it." Becky said moving in and giving Dave a kiss.

"Thanks Becky." Dave grinned and realized that it was time that he worked on his speaking skills. "So what is the first thing that I do Veronica?"

With that Veronica grinned as she started her own lesson for the Prime Merlinian.

* * *

In the millicycles that had passed since the conversation with Sam and Quorra, Anon had to take a moment to wait for his head to stop spinning.

Radia after hearing word of the Creator's death and the blow that the User world was no different than life on the Grid during the Pre-Clu cycles had gotten drunk, followed by Jarvis and Dumont joining her.

After rumors spreading that a greatest darkest secrets of the Grid had been revealed to them. There was some word spreading that them getting a little drunk was understandable as it was way too much information to handle all at once.

For the most part what had been spoken had mostly been confirmation of what was just rumored up to that point.

Flynn had died Stopping Clu.

Quorra had wound up in the User World.

Sam had gotten help rebuilding the Grid.

The rest was, well for everyone's concern just coming to grips with what had happened.

Gem felt a little safer after the talk with Sam. Though her guilt was still there for her part in the death of the Creator and felt that she wanted to make it up with her life. Sam had stopped her by saying that some stupid mistake on her part shouldn't dictate she should throw her life away. That she had people that cared about her. That and seeing how Anon was holding on to her earlier stated that there was some attraction between the two of them and that he was glad that she was safe.

Anon was pleased that Sam didn't want to hurt her. Though in the back of his programming Anon felt it would take more to convince Gem of that. Even after Gem stated that she feared Anna. The worded Imagery that came out of Sam's mouth had freaked her out a little when it came down to Sam interpreting Gem's image of what Anna was like as a warrior... Well for the words she understood. What was a "Sword carrying, chakram throwing, Marve riding Amazon Warrior Princess?"

Somehow Quorra had gotten the reference and blushed a little before clearing her throat. Anon got the feeling that if Gem had ever learned what those words SamFlynn had spoken, Gem wouldn't stop running until she hit the end of the Grid and then some before she ran out of life energy.

For the most part Anon watched as Gem had taken up and started playing Disk Battle games to put her mind at ease and give her something else to vent her energies into.

It was as if after the first few matches where she had been derezzed that she was not so much playing to win, but to be derezzed and experience some of the pain that she had she had been part of during the Clu regime. Sabi had noticed this emotional issue in her fellow program and started for force Gem to play rookie rules style of Disk Battle where the disk wouldn't derezz them. But the disk would stun them on the ground or freeze them in place for a moment or so before letting them back into the match. Though seeing her curled up in the tub with a pile of frozen data blocks around her naked undercode exposed body to treat her injuries. Anon had seen these injuries the last few times he had gone back to the habitat chamber they had shared in Bostrom had been interesting. But the look on Gem's face showed that she was coping better at least emotionally to her circumstances.

Gibson and Sura out of the Programs there were taking the best. Gibson was learning coding that would make any Program's head spin. So far he had learned about some former defense codes that the ancient MCP had hid away in a previous version of the Grid. Something that given the current updates and technology available to the networks that Users had created since the Grid had been placed on Flynn's own personal server had been buried for decades. These hidden lines of code and the routing of it into the current version of the Grid meant that Sam would have a fighting chance against anything that could come and harm Sam and Quorra.

For Sura... She had been User Watching for the last few millicycles; she had said it was like watching Programs hustle and bustle back in the city where she lived prior to her being forcibly taken offline. So far she had been the most understanding of the connective-ness that both the User World and the Grid shared, it was awe inspiring. But it was the development in social networks and music that had gotten the most attention from her. Some of the music sounded like stuff that any program would hear at the End of Line Club. Other songs well felt very primal, some almost soothing, and others... Well... you wondered what the User was thinking when they created them. Some of it just made Anon's head hurt in ways that he just wished that someone to derezz him at that moment just so that he wouldn't have to listen to any more of it.

Anon just wanted to rest as he walked into the structure where he and Gem had been staying. Jarvis and Dumont had gotten to the point where being intoxicated wasn't helping anymore and they had been developing a desire for hard, greasy sustenance. So he had to deal with keeping them in line as they hit the nearest energy terminal and stole the first heavily greasy, bloated with excess data information packet from the nearest patron by them and scarfed it down. They had paid for the meal they had taken, and proceeded to pay for everyone in the establishment to make up for the food they had taken.

Anon had to deal with the near riot that had nearly broken out after word had gotten out for free food being bought by the two priest programs for everyone in that particular establishment. But the two priests had come to terms with the knowledge they now possessed. Some of it would never be passed onto other programs on the main system given how much it could destroy the beliefs of the Programs on the Grid. Though a small number of Programs such as Anon himself would know the truth about their world and how small it was. Though Radia was taking it the hardest with the revelation of this new found knowledge.

Radia had for the most part had been in Jalen's care. Between learning that her friend Flynn had died had hurt her the most, more than the idea that her envisioned Utopia didn't exist within the User World. But Quorra's words had soothed the blow that he had learned that it wasn't a perfect world he was looking for... For something like that was beyond the powers for anyone to create. But knowing that small things of perfection could exist in any world and that they could be found and experienced showed that perfection was present. It just took opening one's eyes to find it.

Clu and sought to create the perfect system. But without a clear definition, he destroyed those things that contained those bits of perfection because they didn't fit his parameters of a perfect whole. Something Quorra had stated that Flynn had felt was his biggest mistake.

Radia had removed her elaborate clothing and started to wear something more normal to where she blended in to the crowd. After some persuasion from Gem after one of her matches, Radia had started to wear her head dress again... Though a little more trimmed down to where her status could be seen, but it wouldn't interfere with her mobility.

In the next few millicycles Anon would be meeting with Sam again and the other to set up a command center where Program and User would be working together in dealing with the threat that presented itself to both worlds. With that Anon moved through the doorway and proceeded to lie down in bed next to Gem who was curled up under the sheets in nothing but a datatowel and went to sleep.

* * *

Linux awoke hard as he hurt in places that he didn't know existed. The last thing he remembered was seeing Sura Derezzed before him by several red coded Black Guard members. Seeing Sura's pixilated remains sink under the waves tore at his base code as he started to dive under for protection from the Disk attacks. Then...

Linux realized that he had been derezzed under the water.

Looking around he saw that he was pretty far into the Sea of Simulation given that he was among the pillars. Starting his swim he saw a Program floating in the sea. Linux would have gone by the floating form had it not been for what little glowing the body had given off.

Kicking off in a new direction, Linux started to swim over to the body of the program. As he got closer he kept hearing something being spoken. It wasn't until he got a hold of the program that Linux started to hear several more splashes around him. That was when he felt the rain start coming down.

"I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users. Save Flynn... Stop Clu... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users..."

"Dude... If you can hear me... Stay functional..." Linux said as he saw several other programs stirring into consciousness.

"Where are we?" a female program called out who looked like she was wearing a hooded jacket as she was kicking out of pure survival as she came to realize where she was at.

"The Sea of Simulation..." Linux said grabbing hold of the darkly lit program. "Hey... was the last thing you remember happening to you was being derezzed?"

"Wait... you mean..." the program looked at him in shock as Linux started to drag the program behind him.

"Yeah... I think we have been Rezzed back into existence."

"What about him?" The program said as several more splashes started to occur as she pointed to the program Linux was dragging behind him.

"I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users..." The dark program kept chanting along.

"I don't know... I think he has a glitch and is trying to reboot." Linux said pushing the program now.

"Well... I think we better gather those around us together and try to get to shore." The female program said looking at the masked program before them.

"Yeah... I have the feeling that his guy might have some of the answers we need about what happened to us." Linux said as more programs started to come to their senses and started to swim towards them.

* * *

Sam had spent the last four hours in a marathon of conference calls. Between the PR stuff of saving his Dad's company and fending off questions from reporters calling every five minutes about the status of the two attacked employees: I.e. Quorra and Martin, he had to state that he was having the company checked over for any further traps or attack systems. But Sam did have a business to run and had to get items needed to make his Dad's dream reality. Speaking with David Xanatos and Dominique Destine about his and Quorra's project had been a hand full.

Xanatos's company had access to advanced Genome Research and Gene Sequencers that could handle the Genetic Algorithms project Quorra needed for her medical research. Destine's Nightstone Unlimited had the Holographic projection tech and the processors where Quorra could miniaturize the tech down to Identity disk Levels. Combine the two together and what Sam saw on the Solar Sail Train when his father had regrown Quorra's arm would mean a breakthrough in treating disease and providing countless war vets the ability to have their missing arms and legs returned to them.

Right now Sam had Jet go through and see what he could pull out of the thirty year old SHV 20905 digitization research. Given that computer technology had gotten smaller and faster over the last twenty years, it was now a process of miniaturizing the tech. But it was the Grid that had his attention for the time being. He had to tell Jet and Anna about Quorra's origins. But given their responses from last night with the sword... Well that part would take a little getting used to. Thought seeing that Quorra had contacts back on her world that could help trim the research time down... Well this Gibson character was someone that Sam decided that he would bring here to help Quorra with her project.

Gibson... The guy was brash, but he had skill. So far... Sam had let him loose on a few of the ENCOM servers to get caught up on twenty years of technology, programming languages, and surprisingly alternate energy technology research. Quorra had given Sam the condensed version of Gibson's past of him working for the Power management Bureau of the Grid, but was forced out when his more radical ideas for energy management butted heads against his supervisors. Now after Sam had looked at some of the research Gibson had done... Well if ENCOM decided to sell a software update to the auto companies... Most of the hybrids that were on the market now would be able to drive coast to coast on a single tank of gas driving at 85 miles per hour.

Talk about an aftermarket package... Detroit would be calling ENCOM for software updates for their power management systems.

Tesla Motors would probably have a car racing in the Indy 500 if you applied Gibson's tech to it.

Talk about changing the World...

Now he was working with Gibson in setting up the video feeds. Talk about breaking the law or two.

Sam had not had this much fun in ages.

"So tell me about Quorra?" Sam said as he started to track down ISP numbers for more cameras in the meeting area.

"I know that I have heard that she and your father were close after spending so many cycles together. So why don't you ask her." Gibson said as he started to sort through code.

"Gibson... I mean I know her post Clu... You knew her Pre-Clu..." Sam said as he noticed the reaction to the question.

"Oh... so you want to what she was like before her life that she knew was hit by the enormous Delete Key called Clu?" Gibson pondered for a moment as he thought on the subject.

"Yeah... I mean I get glimpses of what she was like at times. I mean anyone that perky and kind must have had friends like crazy." Gibson grinned at Sam's references about Quorra.

"Well Quorra was a hand full even for Tron to handle. She always had her way of doing things. I think that is why Radia recruited her as a messenger. Probably it was the only job that Radia could find that would allow Quorra to focus her energies. For the most part Quorra was quite loyal to Radia."

"Yeah... It is like she tries to find the most efficient way to find her way anyplace she goes to." Sam said as he started to punch in more code.

"Well... She did find routes through the grid that provided her the quickest way for her to get around. This made racing her on the Grid the hardest person to catch during the Games back in the old days. That is what made her such a great lightcycle racer and courier." Sam grinned at this.

"Yeah... I remember being placed in Clu's arena. Staying alive was my first concern... For Quorra when she crashed the race in her light runner and grabbed me mid-contest... I was in shock. But talk about doing a break out. I mean how many people blow a hole in the side of an arena make a jump, change the wheel and suspension mid-flight and make a perfect landing all before introducing herself." Gibson chuckled at this.

"Yeah that is Quorra." Gibson said as he looked at Sam. "You seem to care about Quorra a lot." The question hit Sam.

"Yeah I do... I mean because of her I turned my life around. Not getting in trouble as much as I used to. I see a lot of things that I want to help her change to make things better for everyone. She talked about how people tend to bloat on what they have than on what they need. I think that comes from her losing everything she cherished the most being lost. I mean I started to track down every copy of Jules Verne I could find at every bookstore around just so she could have her favorite books back." Sam paused for a moment.

"Yeah... I noticed that those texts by that author were prevalently displayed on the bookshelf in Flynn's house." This was when Sam turned towards the screen.

"You have been in my Father's place?"

"Yeah... Me, Anon, Radia... Hell it was Jarvis that found the place and led the rest of us there. Though I think Gem has spent more time sitting in the main living area just trying to cope with the damage she had caused. For the most part she looks through some of the texts your Creator had of the User World partially trying to figure out why she was brought back. Though mostly I think she is trying to cope with what she nearly destroyed." Sam looked over at the screen and sighed.

"So how much is Gem kicking herself for her actions?"

"A lot, I mean how many times can the girl go through participating through the games and getting derezzed."

"DEREZZED!" Sam yelled out... "Geeze... how did she die?"

"Gem wasn't permanently Derezzed, got a little tossed around during one of the matches." There was a pause before Gibson continued. "Well Gem is doing fine now... I mean since the arena she was had a rez system that was used by your Creator. She other than being disqualified from one of the matches, she is still functional."

"You mean when someone is taken out of a game, they don't die?" Sam was pondering this hard.

"Yeah... It was the way the games were before Clu corrupted them."

"Whoa..." Sam chuckled "That is a relief." Then it hit as Gibson realized that Sam had only known the games under Clu.

"Yeah... your programmer did do a quite a bit of playing back on the Grid in the old days." Sam was surprised for this little detail coming up.

"So what was he like during these games?"

"Well he was a bear whenever he was using that vintage custom ride of his. Program... He could book on his lightcycle for the most part during those days that I knew him. He was quite the racer on the field during the major competitions on the grid. I even raced against him a few times on the Tron-Arjia-Bostrum run. The guy could/would make you eat pixel dust." Gibson remembered that Flynn was gone and had changed that part mid sentence as he realized that his friend was gone.

"Yeah... I drove his cycle once on the Grid. Used it to sneak out of his safe house. It kinda of reminded me of his Ducati here. Fast and quick." Gibson grinned at this.

"Listen... when you get back on the Grid here, how about we have a race in memory of him." Sam grinned.

"That sounds good... Maybe we can share a drink or two and you can tell me how the two of you met?"

"That's a deal Sam Flynn." This is was when Gibson looked at the amount of data flowing his way. "Oh Boy... I think we are going to need some help."

"What is it Gibson?" Sam said worried.

"I think we are going to need some more eyes to help you out. Because I have at least three hundred video feeds coming my way and I can only handle four at a time." Gibson said starting to sort through the data.

"I was afraid of that... And I haven't added the camera phone feeds to you yet." Sam sighed hard.

"Looks like we are going to need to ask Anon to bring in some help." Gibson said realizing that his location in the Bostrum Colony didn't have the space to handle the amount of information being dumped towards him.

* * *

"How many feeds are we talking about Gibson that we will have to monitor on the User World?" Anon said looking at the currently processed data from the Real World being displayed on Gibson's terminal at that time.

"Well between me and Sam hacking feeds... we are at least talking three-hundred and sixty video feeds that will have to be monitored." This was when Gibson started to look at what was really needed. "Though at any one time we are at least looking at keeping our focus on maybe six or eight main feeds." Gibson paused before he added. "That will be of main importance for the situation that Sam and his friends in the Real World will be walking into." Gibson said giving the good news as he called up a map of the area Sam and Quorra would be meeting with the individuals that knew of the Creator's secrets. "Sam like me feels that having a few eyes covering the exits of this place might allow them to stay out of trouble." Anon looked at some of the incoming feeds.

"This seems to be an energy replenishment establishment." Anon said looking at the Users sit down and eat strangely shaped items.

"Yeah... Just like here in Bostrum." There was a pause. "And like any classic vid file... A place like this means that any one in that place could be ready to ambush SamFlynn and Quorra and they wouldn't know it until it was too late."

"So... we need about five maybe six programs watching the main feed with the others watching the other feeds for trouble." Anon said sizing up the situation. "So maybe ninety programs will have to be here with a few relaying back real time feed information back to Sam and Quorra." This was when Gibson added another factor the equation.

"Additionally, Jet and Anna will also be there to assist them." Gibson added as Anon realized that this was something that would need to be done in a major control center.

"So given all the available information, they just need help to see if there is anyone coming their way that might decide to cause harm." Gibson nodded at this. Anon just shook his head. "Folks are still a little scared that the Creator is dead, and the entire Marve thing has got them on edge. The idea that SamFlynn is going toe to toe with Users that were more powerful than himself might even destroy the society of The Grid as we know it." Anon's concern hung in the air.

"Flynn tried his best to prevent what he knew about the Real World from being turned into a religion. But, seeing that many programs think of it as a paradise and not as a mirror of our own world might be hard for many Programs to accept." Gibson said leaning back against the wall. "I think we need to sort through who can handle this information. For the most part we have everyone that was involved in the entire Marve incident, Radia, Jalen. A few folks who personally knew Flynn in Bostrom... that's about twenty Five." Gibson exhaled hard realizing the numbers they would still need.

"Yeah, and that still leaves us a good fifty Programs to track down who won't freak when they find out that they have been asked to aid SamFlynn in being lookouts." Anon looked out the window on the Grid. "Looks like I will have to talk with Jalen and Radia to see who they can dig up on their ends to help us... At least Radia is now sober..." Anon sighed. "She took Flynn's death pretty hard."

"Yeah Anon... I hear you there; Flynn was a good friend to all Programs, Basics and Isos alike." Gibson chuckled. "While I was working with SamFlynn in getting these data feeds we talked about his Creator. How Flynn used to do his best to aid those in need. Well, I think SamFlynn got know his creator a whole lot better. SamFlynn even offered to buy me a drink the next time he comes to the Grid." Anon Grinned at this.

"Yes, I have much to tell SamFlynn about his creator too." Anon stretched an arm out to release some of the tension in it. "His father upgraded my systems during the initial assault against Clu to the point I was able to rescue Quorra from Clu."

"Well let's see if we can help repay the debt to them by aiding them in this." Gibson said as he started to track down those Isos that he could trust with what needed to be done.

* * *

Gem slept... Her mind was spinning... Images of deciphering the terms SamFlynn had spoken had spoken about the User called Anna: "A Sword carrying, chakram throwing, Marve riding Amazon Warrior Princess?"

Gem found herself standing on the grid as small ribbons of green and yellow ribbons started to emerge from the ground and some sort of blower was pushing them in random directions like waves on the Sea of Simulation. Then turning around Gem saw Anna standing behind her. Though most of her garment looked like they were from the Grid. It was the Blade Anna carried that scared Gem.

With that Gem ran until her legs hurt.

Gem realized that she had run into some structure that didn't look like it belonged on the Grid. But outside the buildings looked like they were all from the Grid.

**"Gem..." **It was Quorra's voice from behind her. Gem turned to see herself.

**"Gem... I have to do this fast... I have limited time." **Gem saw her mirror image reach out and touch her on the forehead.

Then images raced into her head.

Pain... Quorra standing over her...

Sam...

_Easy there Gem... You are not used to Gravity._

Then more images... A fight... Rinzler... but he was Blue

_I fight for the Users_.

More images... So many moving so fast Gem couldn't understand what they were.

A dark haired program... No a User.

_The Morganians are trying to raise their army. We must stop them._

A battle.

_Are you an Angel?_ A small User spoke to her.

Pain.

Gem looked up to find herself naked under some sheets. Pulling the bed sheets around her she got up. A figure... Gem ducked to hide. Then peeking around a corner she saw the figure looking at her. The figure had darker skin than her and yellow hair.

_Hello..._

Gem moved over to the figure and reached out to the figure in the darkened room as they mirrored Gem's behavior.

Then Gem's hand hit a hard surface. This was a reflection. The figure was Gem as she jumped back.

Looking around the room several people slept. Sam, Quorra, Anna, Jet, and a few others. All clothed.

Why was she undressed? Then something cracked under her foot. It looked to be a piece of sluffed off dermal code. Gem looked back up as she examined her reflection. That was when she decided to open the sheet to see how much of a change had occurred. That was when a strange sounding female voice spoke up.

_See that you are admiring your new skin. Sam and the others worked for a good day or so to save your life._

_My life..._

Gem felt strange garments on her body now.

**"Veronica... how much data are you going to be sending to me in the past?"**

**"Gem... Hopefully enough to help you and the others. I have to encrypt it some so that your mind doesn't become unhinged from the knowledge you are going to receive."**

**"Yes my User!" Gem became afraid this was her user sending data to her. **

**"Please call me Veronica, I know that calling me a User is your people's term of honor for beings such as myself, but you must understand that it demeans you. You are not my Slave, you are my Friend."**

**"How far are you going to be placing this data in my system?"**

**"The night of when Sam had you speak to Anna for the first time." **

**"Yeah, I was so afraid of her fearing that she would harm me for my past actions in working for Zuse to steal Flynn's identity Disk."**

**"Well, she at least knows your story and you know her's. Now tell yourself to wake up."**

**"Wake up Gem. Go to Radia and show her your disk." **

Gem's eyes shot open...

"What was that?" Gem shot up out of the bed and saw her naked alabaster form in the mirror. Turning around Gem could see her disk flicker a few times before returning to its single lit form.

Taking her Disk off Gem started to rewind her dream. Then she saw something that didn't make sense... Why was the sky glowing blue and orange leading into the horizon surrounding a travel beam from a Solar Sail train station?

"Go to Radia..." Gem mouthed the words on her lips. Quickly Gem got dressed realizing that this was a message for the Iso Oracle and for whatever reason, she had been chosen as the one to deliver it to Radia. Whatever this image meant, it would make sense to Radia.

* * *

_My Ledge... Balthazar is up to something._

_Do you know what my servant?_

_No... But his tracking spell has been detected again along with a Time Message Spell._

_Then we must take action to eliminate him as soon as possible._

_Yes, My Ledge... _

_Go to the Naval base and cast a spell on those Mechanical Gargoyle Drones. We shall ensure that the Prime Merlinian Dies._

_Yes... Death to Quorra Iso... The Prime Merlinian._

* * *

The Xanatos and Destine mentioned in this story are from the Disney owned Gargoyles. I figured if I am going to do a story about Science and Magic might as well go and bring in one of the series that made it work without a hitch… Also… They had cool robots as seen by the _The Gargoyles Saga_ at Gargoyles-Fans. org .

And for Fans who want Tron to return.

I have loaded the gun for you in this chapter.

I hope that you enjoyed it.

Please review…

Hearns


	10. Chapter 9

Sorry about not updating in the last month and a half, but I have been working like crazy with school and other things.

Hopefully everyone will like this chapter.

Now on with the Story.

* * *

Chapter 9:

* * *

Radia was sitting on a bench watching Programs move about in Bostrom. One of the programs had decided to name this open area after Flynn. She watched as an artist started work on a structure called a Tree. For some strange reason it felt like something Flynn would have liked. There were to be several more constructed, all different, all with random elements so that no two would be exactly alike following the principles of a living network.

That was when Radia saw a Siren approach her. It took Radia a moment to recognize the Siren as being Gem, Anon's lover and the program who out of guilt felt the most responsibility for causing the events that led to the death of the Creator.

"Child... Please sit." Radia said motioning to the Siren to sit down by her. With that Gem hesitantly sat down beside her.

"Oracle Radia." Gem spoke looking away unsure how to continue. "I know that through my actions I caused the death of the Creator. But..." Gem's eyes flickered as her Identity Disk synced with her and Gem reached backwards to pull her disk from her back. Almost possessed Gem watched helplessly as she somehow got into her diagnostic mode like she had done it a thousand times before and cracked through her own security layering to access her memories. Then an image was shown before her and Radia in the hovering hologram of the Identity Disk. Gem felt her eyes fall upon what she had recovered.

"How did you get this image?" Radia said almost fearfully reaching out to the image on the display.

"I don't know... I had a dream from my last rest cycle and... I saw this..." Gem watched as Radia become scared.

"You mean... you do not know what this is?" Radia said concerned. Gem shook her head in response. "This is the Sun... The most powerful image of the User World. Flynn showed it to me once a long time ago. He said that Ajiara City looked like that when he had entered it for the first time. He told me that the being that created the Users a being they called God, forged this as one of his first acts." Gem became scared.

"You mean... The Sun... Is that powerful that a being above the Users exists created it?" Gem became terrified. In the last few Millicycles she had learned much... But this... Something more powerful than the Users... Existed... The idea of being smited by a User looked tame. "But a creature... A being this powerful." Radia reached out to calm Gem down.

"Flynn said once that there are many levels of reality. That they are all connected together. Flynn and later Quorra said that the User World was no different than ours. Something I scoffed at the time. But now, knowing and seeing some of the images and the reality I am now faced with... I have to humble myself some. We are just mere specks in the wheel of creation. But knowing that doesn't mean that we are not connected with the rest. That our actions here have implications to the larger whole and that is what matters in the scheme of things." Gem relaxed some.

"But why did this image appear to me?" Gem spoke as she watched programs move about the park.

"Maybe because you have a role to play in the larger whole Gem of the Sirens." Radia watched as two programs tossed an Identity Disk between themselves for fun. "We are all connected in ways that we cannot imagine."

* * *

"Sir... We have so far found at least fifteen of those booby trapped cameras." A tech engineer said over the Skype call to Sam Flynn. "For the most part they seem to be connected to a network command system that is running a facial recognition program and we have been slowly tracing back to where the computer that is running it is from." Sam sighed.

"Dedicate whatever resources you need from other projects to make the building safe. If need be kill the power to the building, I don't want anyone else fried by these things." The tech nodded. "Transfer any active projects to our off site data clouds for the time being so that we can keep up to speed and allow our employees to work from home for the next few days."

"Understood Mr. Flynn." Sam Winced at himself being treated as being so formal but that is what he got for taking back the reigns of his Father's company. With that the tech hung up and Sam started to look over the information Jet had pulled off of the system about their well meaning intruder.

Dave Stutler

Physics Graduate Major

Off Site Lab

Advanced background in all fields of particle physics

Hospitalized for a Mental Freak-out at the age of 10 while on a Class Field Trip about 2000-ish.

Transferred Schools

Top Grades...

More Top Grades.

Honors with Top Grades.

A guy with this background should be working at MIT... Hell ENCOM's Science Division.

Hell Running ENCOM's Science Division given some of the memories that his Grandmother had told him about his Dad.

But it was the small things that stuck out for Sam in relation of this individual. It looked like up to nearly a year ago Dave Stutler wouldn't have shown up on anyone's radar given the Freak-out Incident. Looked like that one event probably spooked a kid like Stutler so hard that it left him scared for life. But in the past year and the number of phone calls to one Rebecka Barns that Sam had pulled from phone records on the guy was that Dave had started to turn his life around.

So without having to dig any deeper Sam realized that Dave was just an Average Joe who probably was involved in getting inside of whatever research he had discovered going in the area of particle physics. Maybe some tech groupie who was seeing if he could find a work around for some research project he was working on.

So what of Balthazar Blake?

Sam started a Google search first off with such a unique name and got about 761,000 results, most of them with variations of Balthazar Getty and Blake Roberts, though out of that about 76,000 results focused upon Balthazar Blake himself. Most of the information dealt with antique shop purchases and estate sales. A segment dealing with a lean on a property that was reposed back in 2001. Then recently information started to show up with rare text purchases. Most of the text Sam had to run through a translation window, but it looked like to be ancient texts on mathematics, alchemy, and early physics. Then Sam hit pay dirt when it came to a little obscure document pertaining to a report done by an American Journalist on an old eighties Department of Defense program called "New Earth Army." Mostly the journalist had learned about a Psychic Warrior program and pushing human awareness and evolution to the next level. Balthazar was listed as one of the Guru guys one of the originators of the program had gone to for help on the human mind. Definitely fit with his Dad's Hippy days.

Though after seeing the power that his father had demonstrated on the Grid... Having a guy that had experience in expanding the human mind's potential, well it made sense if you had powers you needed a Yoda to teach you how to use them. Then what had the guy been doing when his old man had disappeared back in 89?

That was when Sam started to make a few contacts with Gibson and asked him to do some digging into some of the classified documents that were on the Pentagon computer servers. Given that the military was going paperless, many of the old files that consisted of boxes upon boxes of stuff that was sitting in some warehouse were being fed into large banks of high speed double sided document scanners. ENCOM and a few other firms due to the mess that Wikileaks had done to computer security, had placed a face identity biometric system to ensured that the documents that were being viewed took an image of who had been looking at them. Added to that copy protection and a slew of smart paper technologies where the documents never left the server and the terminals and the terminals could be tracked. That and encode the documents that when printed showed an invisible line code that would present information such as who printed the document and off of what system it had come from.

Because Gibson existed in cyberspace and anything that he read would still be on the system and because the MCP of old had been hacking its way into the defense network, many of its old lock picks had been left lying around of where it had breached the system. And given that ENCOM had been writing software for the upgrade, anything in these old files would be seen but not seen by human eyes. Hell not even leaving the main server. Mostly the files would be seen as the system doing a Boolean category search to keep things organized. That was when Gibson reported back in and with it showed an old picture that he had been able to find in the files.

It was Balthazar Blake, age 40... In 1977. That was when Sam looked at the image on the computer monitor next to him showed the same man's driver license circa 2000, Age 40. Then Sam checked the Social Security Number dated on his recent tax return showed that... Well that was a surprise... Balthazar Blake, age 40. Wouldn't this guy be pushing like 75 or 80? A screen Capture and an image recognition subroutine later and the computer said it.

All images match 100%

What the Heck was Balthazar Blake? And why didn't he age?

With that Sam Decided to see how far the name "Balthazar Blake" went back and what showed up on the screen next scared him.

Balthazar Blake was standing in front of the Statue of Liberty... Under Construction.

What the Hell was Balthazar Blake? With that Sam decided that he and Quorra would be carrying the Batons with them at this meeting. Whatever was going on was entering into the realm of very strange and scary stuff; and why was music from Queen playing in the back of his head while he was looking at this as the hair on the back of his neck started to stand on end?

Gibson and the others would have to be on their toes when they brought the surveillance system up, something told Sam that they were going to need every edge they could get for the meeting ahead.

* * *

Anon watched as Radia and Jalen walked into the surveillance room in Tron City. One thing about Jarvis, he knew where Clu had all of the neat toys and hardware stashed. So far Clu had another hover carrier under construction for his invasion of the User World, that one had though unfinished had been started up with a skeleton crew and was on its way to the portal to keep watch. If there was a chance of something coming through, there would be at least some warning before hand. But for the time being this command center that used to be occupied by members of the Black Guard now held programs from various parts of the Grid. Most of which had been recruited from contacts that Radia and Jalen had brought to the table, though it was the individuals that Gibson had brought from Bostrum. Talk about an Eclectic group of individuals, some of these people Anon swore Tron had busted for various system infractions. Then with a sigh Anon remembered a phrase Flynn had said often. _'Sometimes you need a thief to catch a thief'._

With that Anon stood next to Gibson and started to speak before the crowd.

"As you have wondered why you have all have been brought here." Anon spoke with clarity. "First off you all of varied skill sets needed to aid in an operation that will be run out of this room. Additionally you all personally knew of the Creator, Kevin Flynn." With that Radia moved in to speak.

"Everyone has heard the stories that the Creator gave his life to stop Clu." Radia had to take a deep breath before continuing on. "I am here to say that the story is true. The Creator gave his life to personally end the functioning of Clu." that was when the crowd started to gasp and shock started to set in. This was when Radia continued. "Before Clu was reintegrated into Flynn, Clu had tricked another User into coming here to the Grid. Flynn Son... SamFlynn."

"What is a son?" A program spoke up.

"Another User created by a User. Flynn had to leave the Grid from time to time to work on SamFlynn's development. That is why he was gone for cycles on end." This was when Radia decided to let Gem speak up.

"Flynn was planning prior to Clu's Coup to bring SamFlynn here." there was a long pause. "Flynn wasn't able to finish most of the work on SamFlynn's development, so he left it to Alan1 and Lora who finished up most of his compiling. SamFlynn felt bitter that Flynn wasn't there during the more troublesome times of his development process but longed for answers to these questions." Gem let Radia finish up from where she had started.

"When Clu sent out his signal into the User World, SamFlynn responded to it and came through the portal to our world. Once here Clu captured him and forced him to participate in the Games. This was until Quorra, Flynn's student here on the Grid and one of the last remaining Isos rescued SamFlynn from the Games." Radia paused for a moment before she continued. "SamFlynn was able to meet his creator and get the answers that he so desperately needed. With that knowledge SamFlynn made the decision to fight Clu and went out to seek allies and resources needed to fight Clu." Gem was getting worried at this time. "I worked for Zuse who had changed his name to Castor and gone into hiding during the Clu regime. During the thousand cycles that had pasted, Zuse became opportunist. Zuse realized that Flynn's identity disk would give him leverage he would need to have Clu leave him alone and possibly in his good graces." Gem broke down. "I used my Siren abilities to lure SamFlynn into a trap so that Zuse could acquire Flynn's identity disk. When Clu learned of Zuse's prize he personally came to claim the disk. Then afterwards Clu derezzed anyone who had possibly known of the disk or seen it. I was one of those how had seen it."

This was when Anon spoke up again. "Clu's end goal after he had conquered the Grid was to invade the User World and Flynn's disk was the key in doing that."

"Wait... you mean... Clu was going to breach the very walls of the User World. What was there that was so important for him to get?" A female Iso from Bostrom spoke up.

"The Powers of All of the Users as well as new lands to turn into his ideal of perfection." Jalen broke in.

"By the User..." Several Programs spoke in shock remembering the damage Clu had done to the Grid in his creation of a perfect system.

"Flynn was able to Stop Clu on this side, but to ensure that Clu was gone for the system for good. He sent through his student Quorra and SamFlynn to ensure that the deletion was permanent."

"Quorra... You mean... one of us is... There... in... in the User World." Was the response from one of the programs still in shock from the first bit of information of Clu's plans for the User World. The realization that a program had fulfilled Radia's Prophecy left the room in shock.

"Yes... and Quorra along with SamFlynn sought out help among several Users in his world to repair ours." Radia continued on realizing that she was still recovering from the energy binge she had gone through.

"The Rerezzing!" Another program spoke at the realization of this.

"Yes, and during the process one of the Users named Jet somehow used some sort of codec to look into our world." Radia was stopped when Gibson broke in.

"To make a long story short. The guy thought he was watching a theatrical video feed from our world and not actual events going on here as he was catching a peek on our world. Somehow when he was watching us, me and Sura here got hit by the system he was using and as a result we got some of the code copied into our systems. After some work we have been able to fix the coding system and establish two way communication between the User World and the Grid." With that the room got quiet as Radia started to speak towards the crowd.

"SamFlynn has asked for our help in dealing with a situation that has arisen in the User World." there were mummers of concern.

"Could we have some quiet!" Anon announced to the room, with that the room settled down again.

"The main reason that you are all here is that SamFlynn needs to help be his lookouts. We have established connections to various video feeds from his world. Sura and I will be able to influence things in the User World to a limited degree. But there is only so much we can process at once." Gibson said as the entire room looked at him and Sura.

"I have lent my experience and skills to helping look for dangers to SamFlynn and Quorra. Radia and Jalen are lending their diplomatic skills. Everyone else in this room will be using their skills and their knowledge to help protect SamFlynn and Quorra." With that Sura spoke up.

"I have talked with Quorra some and the Users Jet and Anna will also be there too to assist them. Now there is a lot of area for us to watch over, but I have asked that communication be established so that they can hear and communicate back with us."

"There is something you all should know. The User World is no different than ours. There are good individuals and bad individuals, as well as the fact that not all of the beings living there have User powers, they are just as powerless as us in their millicycle to millicycle lives. The only thing that considerably different is its appearance but there is enough that is recognizable that we shouldn't have too much trouble in giving out locations to SamFlynn and his allies." Anon motioned to Gibson to do what they had planned earlier. "Gibson boot up the system."

With that Gibson moved over to one of the central terminals and activated the monitors. The large screen lit up and showed several feeds from the User World.

"SamFlynn will be meeting their contacts in a sector called China Town in a city called Los Angeles." Several of the programs blinked in awe at what they were seeing. The red and gold building with its triangular roof showed on the main monitor. "This energy processing establishment is where the meeting will be occurring." With that a hand held feed was shown on another monitor. "Sam, do you hear us?"

"Hey Anon... It is nice to hear from you." The User said on the screen. From the looks of it, he seemed to be in some sort of transport.

"It is good to hear from you SamFlynn." With that the image shifted to show Quorra.

"Anon... Is everything ready on your end?"

"Yes... we just finished filling everyone in the room in on the situation."

"Okay, between you and the other AIs on the system we should have enough eyeballs on the system to keep us ahead of any messes that might come our way." Sam said before handing the communicator over to Quorra.

"Anon... Have you decided on who is going to be talking to us one on one?"

"Not yet..." Anon said as he looked around to see Several step forward.

"I'll take and help Quorra." Gem said before the group.

"I'll take Anna." Sabi said as she looked over at Gem. "Don't worry Gem; I'll do my best to keep her from hurting you."

"And I will assist too Gem. I wish to learn more about what has transpired since my time away."

"Okay." Gem nodded as Radia moved forward.

"I will do my best to assist SamFlynn, but if it gets out of hand and he needs to do battle I will let you take over my position Anon."

"I'll take Jet." Gibson said. "I owe the guy for bringing back some of the programs I know and love that I am currently working with right now from being deleted into the Trash Bin."

"Actually it is called a Recycle Bin now... They made the change back in the early nineties." Quorra added from her research on the Internet. Sam Grinned at this.

"Listen, I am going to give you some ISP numbers so that you call the others Gibson. "With that Sam gave Gibson the ISP sequence numbers.

"Jet, Anna, Quorra... Sound check."

"Testing..." Jet said over the speakers. "So... your Gibson... The old Friend of Quorra's that she was having a Skype Call with earlier this morning.

"Yeah... It was nice to hear from her in a long time." Gibson said to the User trying to feel him out. "Listen, I tried to call her while back and got some conversation between some couple earlier. It wasn't until I heard your voice that some glitch from some video file crashing and Quorra was hurt that I started to put things together." Jet wondered what was up.

"Wait, you mean that you heard..."

"I believe that you said something about Damnation Ally and Resident Evil Mechanime. Don't worry Dude. I disconnected the call and tried back later trying to reach Quorra again. So did Marve win the fight against the Toaster?"

"Ah, Crap... You heard that?"

"Yes and a few other things with a particular red headed girl."

"Wait you heard us talk?" Anna said worried.

"Yeah... Hung up after you started talking Padme versus Leah and Ashoka Tano's new clothes. I mean two piece tube top versus leather one-piece swim ware. I just settle on level of cleavage which one shows off the most."

"So you're an Aayla Secura fan. Figures..." Anna said rolling her eyes.

Sam chuckled at this reference to rabid Star Wars Fans.

"Gibson, listen I know that this conversation is going into Star Wars fandom. I mean there are six films and several seasons of a television series in relation to this. But we do have a meeting to head to so could you get a trace on our location." With that Gibson started to get a lead on the transmission source. With a few taps on the control panel, Gibson got a lock on their position, up on the main display screen the silhouette of a vehicle started to appear then came into focus as the image of a white pick-up truck was shown in all of its detail.

"We have you on the monitors." Gibson said as the display zoomed in on the transport.

"Okay..." Sam said getting out of the vehicle. "Quorra and I are going to continue to the meeting place on foot. Sam and Anna are going to be heading in first. I need you to watch the customers to see if anyone sticks out from the images we were able to send you."

"Understood. we should be able to match the faces to the man who was with this Dave person." Then on the screen Anon put up an image of a face of an individual with a mustache.

"Everyone, I need you to keep your eyes open for this individual. He may or may not have the facial hair I need to know when and if he shows up." Anon said over the linked group chat call.

"Why do I feel like I just walked into a Jason Bourne movie?" Anna said realizing the strangeness her life had taken over the last day or so.

"Take it easy, at least you have your memories of your life." Radia said remembering Flynn talking about a film that he had watched on their streaming media format called Television.

"Radia, as much as I like to catch up on movies. You better Identify yourselves to Jet and Anna." Sam said.

"Anna, do you hear me... My name is Sabi." A soft voice spoke into the Bluetooth headpiece Anna was wearing.

"Like the sauce?" Anna said as she watched Jet pull over into a parking place and let Sam and Quorra out.

"Hey you two, make sure that you have your batons things with you." Jet called out as the exited the vehicle.

"Don't worry Jet," Quorra called out as she bailed out Jet's truck. "I have my baton under my jacket sleeve." Quorra tapped her left arm where she had concealed the multi-tool from her world.

"Okay. We'll be inside waiting for you." Anna said as she watched her friend get out.

"We'll be monitoring when you enter." Anon said as Sam closed the door and watched the Truck pull away.

"Let's do this." Sam said as he and Quorra walked the full block to where the meeting was taking place.

* * *

Dave was nervous as he and Becky walked into the China Star Buffet. This was strange, the place had at least fifteen laptops, five smart phones, a couple of those new tablet computers, and a few other things that Dave swore his students were using instead of notepads. But it was the large guy that was standing behind him with the resold fifties gas station Dickies work shirt, jeans and glasses. That was when the blur of a red haired girl bounced in through the door. The white blouse jeans and cowboy boots screamed that she was very attractive and probably not wearing any underwear.

"Jet..." The red head bounced up and planted a passionate kiss on the guy's face.

"Umhrmf..." The muscular guy said trying to get two words in. With that she pulled away.

"Jet?" the girl said as she pulled back. Dave rolled his eyes some as she sheepishly bit her lip.

"Air..." The guy said as he coughed a few times before he was able to compose himself.

"Sorry, I'm a little hyped that Sabi and Gibson set us up on a Date." Dave had to look away some not seeing their faces.

"Table for two." the guy was able to motion to the hostess. More like a room, Dave thought as the couple before him and Becky were sat down a minute later.

The smell of Mongolian barbecue, sweet and sour chicken, egg drop soup, and beef Lomein noodles hung in the air. If Dave wasn't worried about meeting Quorra and her boyfriend he might have decided to go with the pork pot lickers and sweet biscuits. That was when Dave saw Quorra walk in though the door with Sam Flynn.

Quorra look to be a little pinkish from the heat blast she had received from the heat ray she had been hit with. Dave suspected that most of that was due to calamine lotion and he could remember the feel of it when he was sunburned when he was a kid. Quorra must be itching like mad. The only thing that got Dave through the hours of itching was laying back and watching movies.

Given Quorra's background, what movies would she be watching to probably deal with passing the time dealing with the itchy skin.

That was when Balthazar and Veronica came through the door and waited to be seated. Quorra motioned to the hostess that she and Sam wanted to be seated by him and Becky. Then she saw Dave and started to head towards them.

This was getting strange, well the good news was she was grinning and waving at them. The bad news was that her boyfriend was talking on the phone with someone. Probably some former Israeli Mossad waiting outside to grab him and heave him into the back of some black van.

The Worse thing was Dave couldn't lie to save his life.

* * *

"Okay Quorra, I believe that we have a match." Anon said as he spoke into his headset. "Jet I need you to stretch and pan that camera of your around."

"Will do..." Jet said trusting the security program. The image from his feed went from being on the table then the swinging and leaning out from his sitting position. Then the pan around the room slowly Anon watched as the faces in the room slowly started to be displayed on the screens.

"Okay, we are seeing a lot of faces..." then Anon saw them. "Jet hold it... by the main entrance door." Jet stopped his movement. "Mirai... run back the footage of the individuals that were outside of the building where Quorra was attacked." Anon watched as the footage SamFlynn had uploaded to the system was scanned through. The faces of each individual was pulled out of the image then matched against the people in the room.

"Okay Sam. It looks like we have a few matches." Anon looked at the images. "Looks like the girl sitting with DaveStutler happens to be sitting with a female with blond hair that was outside of the building you and Quorra are based out of, she looked to be a distraction for..." Anon's coding lines went cold. "Sam the law enforcement officer she was with is by the door along with the diagnostic technician that carried Quorra away to be healed." Anna looked over by the door and stroked her fingers through her hair to move it away from her Bluetooth ear-piece that had a miniature camera attached to it.

"Got a clearer image of the door Anon." Anna said letting the security program get a clear look as Jet placed his arms back down.

"Thanks Anna." Sabi said as Anon walked over to look at the image the Warrior user was sending to them. "SamFlynn... We have confirmation on Balthazar Blake."

"Gotcha, Anon." Sam said as he watched Quorra wave at Dave Stutler. Sam didn't know if she did that to calm his down or freak him out but for Anon the reaction from the crowd was considerable. Except for one person.

"Sam, there is a guy who is acting differently." Anon said checking the crowd against images from ENCOM. "Looks like the guy with the ponytail wearing the long dark jacket that is sitting midway by the buffet hasn't taken his eyes off of you since you entered the establishment." With that Anna turned to see where Anon has mentioned.

"I see him, the Kevin Smith Wannabe with a ponytail." Anna said looking at the man sitting in one of the booths.

"Give me a second." Anon said as he watched as Jalen look over the footage Sam had sent over. "What is it Jalen?"

"Take a look at this." Jalen pointed out as he scrolled through the footage and started to move it around to get some better clarity on each of the subjects that were shown. "This individual appears several times throughout the footage, and conversely, I have noticed that the ID badge that he is wearing doesn't match any of the current or past employees on file." With that Gibson slid the image up on the main screen.

"Give me a second Jalen." Gibson said as he delved into his connections with the various Defense Intelligence Agencies and through them got access to the local law enforcement networks. "Okay... Looks like our pal here happens to be one Gary Hammer, looks like his father was Roy Kleinberg, used to work for... correction, works for ENCOM. Looks like Kleinberg was brought in personally by Alan Bradley back in December 2010. Looks like after his father was brought into ENCOM, Gary was involved with something called the FlynnLives Movement off and on since 2000. Uh...back about 2008, took a sledge hammer to some Executive's car. Some light vandalism to office buildings. Trespassing at several conferences pertaining to financial stipends to former employees." Sam had to cover his mouth to speak freely to Gibson.

"Gibson... Can you place a call to him and ask him why he is here and state that I'll talk with him face to face after I meet with Dave and figure out what is going on with his end of things." Sam watched as Quorra grew concerned listening to Sam talk.

"Sam, what is it?" Quorra's words and mannerisms changed.

"Ah... Just that something has come up and I am letting Gibson see if we can stall it or at least control the situation at hand." Sam said walking with her to the table.

"Gibson, start and see if you can interface with that phone and make Gary pick it up." Anon said as Gibson started to tap into Jet's cell phone and activated the Bluetooth antenna and started to do a scan range on the communication device. Given the specs that Gibson had been reading up on the last few milicyces he had a pretty good idea of what he could do to make the phone communicate his system here on the Grid. Then in a matter of moments Gibson got a reaction from the phone ringing.

"Hello..." The voice said over the system.

"Hello Gary Hammer... I need you to pay attention very clearly. My name is Gibson and I am a friend of Quorra's. Now I don't have a lot of time to waste here. I know that you are sitting in the China Star restaurant right by the Buffet. I need to know what you are doing because it might mean life or death for you," Gibson got serious. "Why were you standing outside of ENCOM earlier today with a faked ID badge?"

"Listen I don't know who you are, but I am going to hang up now."

"You may have seen the person or bumped into them when they set off that heat gun on Quorra." Gibson had the User's attention now.

"What?" the User was looking around the room.

"You may have bumped into the guy." Gibson spoke slowly. "Listen, I am tied in to the video feeds of the cameras of the restaurant you are at. Right now I need you to head over to the table with the red head and state that..." It took a while for Gibson to think this out. "Sir... how dare you court my sister in an establishment like this."

"That sounds cheesy as Hell." Gary said looking around.

"Would, The Sun is shining, but the Ice is Slippery do better?" Gibson said throwing up his hands. "Just say the line from Jayne Austin." Gary just looked around the room while trying not to move his head.

"Okay..." Gary cleared his throat before getting up and walking over to the table. After a few tense moments and swallowing his pride, Gary decided to do this best Big Brother impersonation.

"Sir... _**HOW DARE YOU COURT MY SISTER..."**_ with that the red head reached up and pulled him into the booth and was shaking hands with the guy sitting across from her.

"You must be her brother Gary..." The very muscular guy said in the glasses. Gary was pretty much in shock by this.

"You know a guy named Gibson?" Jet just grinned.

"Quorra's childhood friend. One of the kids whose folks were slain by the dude who sold out Kevin Flynn's research team. Who now has his hands on some of the software on Flynn's hard drive and is sitting in a hacker's cave along with at least twenty other people he knows of that is running a Spy Operation that would rival a Jason Bourne Flick just to see if the guy who took a shot at Quorra with a Ray Gun takes the bait." Gary just swallowed. "Yeah... and the guy at the table with Sam and Quorra is the other guy who might have seen him."

"Oh... sheesh..." Gary's head just went into his hands.

"Sorry to interrupt your freak-out, but we have a few other hits coming up." Gibson said checking the monitors. That was when Quorra and Sam were now sitting at the table and had started talking some as the waitress was going to get their drinks.

"So you are Dave Stutler..." Sam was heard as his wireless earpiece transmitted his voice to the Grid.

"Yeah..." Dave was looking around as he cleared his throat.

Quorra grinned and reached into one of the strap her mesh backpack and pulled out a Smartphone with a touch screen. With a few taps of her thumb she brought up an image of Dave in his mustache disguise.

The image of Dave's mustache disguise wasn't the bad thing. It was the fact that as Quorra rolled her thumb across the image is across the screen the blood proceeded to drain from his face. Becky turned and saw images of herself outside of the ENCOM building. Followed by images of Balthazar Blake, and Veronica at the hospital.

"Oh, Boy..." Dave blinked a few times looking at the scene before him unfold that was when Quorra grew concerned and sat down by him.

"DaveStutler... I understand that you feel that I might cause you harm... But I don't... that is the last thing I wish to do." Quorra reached out and took his hand. Dave seemed to settle down some more. "I grew up around one of your kind, that amount of power that you possess is due to the fact that your mind has taken the next step forward in your people's evolution." Quorra bit her lip. "The first time I ever spent some time with one of your kind... I was... Wow... This is a being capable of doing things beyond my comprehension." Sam moved to sit down and started listening. "I mean this was a person that so like others of my people, but with powers that were frightening. I mean since being here, you and your friends are the only ones that I have encountered so far that remind me of the person that saved me. Brought me out of that darkest moment of my life. Sam's Father."

* * *

Dave just blinked.

This was the complete left turn of what he had expected.

Quorra didn't want to hurt him.

Quorra was homesick and... Oh... Crap...

"I mean, when your friend accessed my memories. It was probably the safest I have felt in a long time." Quorra grinned. "Though getting the feedback from her own memories into my head, was a bit much to take in. I mean I know how to saddle a horse. How to track a deer through the forest. Shoot a bow. Start a small fire, how to keep warm while out in the forest."

Dave just blinked a few times. How much of Veronica's mind did Quorra get in the transfer?

"So you know about the..."

"Bad Fitting Old Man Shoes." Quorra grinned and blushed a little at that image.

"Yeah... But Veronica knows that you have put in different insoles just so your feet don't hurt. But at least you have found a style that you like that fits with your Master's design specs." Dave was taken aback by this. Dave had expected some Warrior Princess, not some... Fellow Geek that... At this Becky chuckled.

"Quorra... I think that Dave had you all wrong. That you were some sort of crazy warrior chick, but here, now you are. Dave's female counter part."

"Yeah, I got that from running his full background check. I mean, other than the glucose fluid imbalance during his developmental growth stage, which I see as fairly common among the Human species." Dave freaked a little at knowing that Quorra had access to his medical records. "Now seeing you here and seeing that you have gained some stability over your physiology says a lot, though I feel that like you, having your name being used for slang for a mental breakdown gives you the short end of the stick." Quorra rolled her eyes at the reference. "Trust me, after living with Flynn for as long as I did, I picked up a lot of his slang." Quorra sighed. That was when Quorra reached up and tapped the Bluetooth earpiece on her ear. "Gibson, what is it?" there was a pause. "So, Gary is willing to work with us about what he knows." another pause. "Wait, me and Flynn were still on the Grid!" another pause this time with concern. This was when Quorra looked worried as she turned to look at Sam Flynn. "Who's the Morganian Order? And why would they be involved in stock manipulation?" another pause as Sam chimed in.

"They got the subcontract to install the cameras at ENCOM!" Sam blurted out. "How does a group like this..." Sam's Jaw hit the floor. "Wait, you ran the same scan that I ran on Balthazar Blake..." Dave started to get worried as he wondered which wiz on the computer was giving them updated information about himself, Becky and now Balthazar. "Private Civilian contractors... Wait... What is the name of this outfit?" Dave paused as he watched as Sam and Quorra were getting information about the Morganians from this Gibson individual. "Mordred Security?" Sam and Quorra quickly looked at Dave and Becky.

"Did you know that someone tapped your phones?" Quorra said as Balthazar moved over to the table.

"Dave, Becky, Sam, Quorra... I believe that we should get out of here." Said Balthazar in his long vintage western riding jacket. That was when things started to go bad.

"DEATH TO THE PRIME MERLINAN QUORRA ISO. ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY TO HELL." An Asian waitress said slapping a hand on top of one of the Foo Dog Statues by the door. With that the Statue came to life and started to growl as the woman ran through the door and forced it shut. With that everyone in the restaurant started running for the side doors and the emergency exits only to find them locked.

"I think someone thinks you are me." Dave said realizing that things were going to go very bad real fast.

"What do you mean?" Quorra said as she watched the statue start to craw off of its base and bark a few times.

"Uh, Q. I think we can talk about this later." Sam said as the creature heaved out a breath of fire and started to burn the soft serve ice cream machine by the buffet into molten slag.

* * *

Balthazar after centuries of experience had known about the old Animated statue trick Maxim Horvath had used on the Wall Street Bull. But seeing it used in such plain sight without a perception cloak spell meant trouble. The fact the statue was breathing fire didn't help matters.

Before Balthazar was able to do anything, Quorra had reached into the sleeve of her black leather jacket and produced a short baton. With a twist in her hand it shimmered lines of light before becoming a staff. With a practiced movement she took three steps towards the now animated Foo Dog statue and slammed her staff right through its body shattering it into pieces. People were starting to calm down some as they realized that whatever was causing damage to the place had been stopped. But still many still wanted to get out and had started racing towards the doors.

All Dave and Balthazar could do was blink as what was left of the statue's head scrapped across the floor. That was when Quorra knelt down and pulled up a fragment of her would be attacker.

"Sam... this is Rez Matter?" Quorra said holding up a fragment in her hand. Balthazar looked as the manager came out of the kitchen looking pissed to Hell.

"What?" Sam said as he knelt down over the now shattered material to kick free a compressed blow torch that was attached to the head.

"What is going on here?" the Manager said looking down at the statue to see the blowtorch inside of it and the sprinkler system started up and stared to cover the room in water. "What has new girl done now?"

"New girl, as in the girl that yelled like a mad woman and split out of here before she sent the killer robot after us?" Dave said looking towards the manager and getting a nod back.

"When did you hire her?" Sam said as he started walking to the door. That was when Balthazar reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Performing a simple illusion spell, the illusion of a police badge appeared with credentials underneath.

"Just today." The manager said getting the feeling that something was up.

"Did you have an open position for a waitress job before she came in?" The manager had to think about this a little as he reached over and grabbed the keys out of his pocket to see if he could unlock the door again as he pushed his way through the crowd of now soaked people to get to the lock.

"No I do not remember. But new girl had this thing about wanting to add candles to the tables."

"Like the candles that are now on the table?" Quorra said picking up one of the now extinguished candles to examine it. That was when Dave called out in panic.

"Uh... I don't think the Foo dog was what she had in mind in sending Quorra to Hell." with that Dave took the candle from the bottom and showed it to Balthazar. The digital timer on the bottom was ticking down.

"Oh, Hell..." that was when Jet checked one of the candles on the table he was by and Sam called out.

"Jet... Plan B" with that the Candle was placed back on the table as he reached into his pocket to pull out his Smartphone.

"Ya... Why doesn't this door want to open?" The Manager said jiggling the key into the door. Balthazar reached over and placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

"You might stand back away from the door." The manager looked towards the sorcerer as a pair of headlights started blaring high beams through the class of the door. With that, everyone trying to get out got the point of moving back away from the door as the engine started roaring loader as what looked like some sort of armored wedge formed on the front of the truck as it accelerated towards the front of the restaurant. Balthazar with a hand still on the manager grabbed him and hauled like crazy out of the doorway as the white pickup truck crashed through the front of the restaurant. With the door gone, people started to clear out of the building as the truck rolled backwards to provide a larger exit out for the people inside.

"You had someone outside?" Dave stammered out as he started to run outside as the timers on the candle bombs started to tick down more and more.

"No... Remote control!" Jet said hauling through the door as the truck continued to move backwards then come to a stop in the parking lot.

"Gibson... put up a grid wall between us and the building using the rez rods on Jet's truck." Quorra said into her ear piece. Suddenly the front of the truck changed from its armored state to being a normal truck. then the cattle guard on the front of the truck started to glow white as they swung out and a very thick wall started to phase into existence.

"Sam... I am pushing the power cell you have in the back of your transport to the limit but I don't think it can hold up to the explosion that is about to happen." A voice said over the open speaker phone of a pudgy guy wearing a Kevin Smith Style Tenchcoat.

"How much more juice do you need?" Dave said into the cell phone.

"I don't know," the voice responded back. "Maybe seventy to sixty five thousand volts at ninety amps." The voice said.

"No problem!" Dave said he rushed over to the truck and tried to open the door.

"Hold up man, what do you need?" Jet rushed up to Dave.

"Jumper cables!" Dave said as Jet Fished the Dongle out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "Quorra, those rods that you use, they are based along the lines of cold solidified plasmatic matter that polarize silica and carbon in the air. Right?" Quorra nodded at that. "Okay, I know that you can shoot a grapple line from that baton of yours I need you to fire it at the nearest metallic light pole and bring the remaining line to these jumper cables."

"Where are you going to get the energy needed to..." Dave pointed up to the sky. "The weather manipulate tech! Gotcha." With that Quorra tapped the settings to her baton and fired off the grapple line into the light pole as Dave connected the lines of the jumper cables to the fuel cell in the back of the modified pickup truck. Balthazar was amazed at how Dave and Quorra were working together. By combining these two different kinds of magic, the barrier would be able to hold up against the explosion.

* * *

Gibson sat staring at what was happening as Quorra's baton grapple line was connected to the energy cables. Dave was using some sort of handheld device to do something with the weather as a small storm front moved in. Then a bolt of energy shot from the sky hitting the light structure and flowed right into the... the energy levels were beyond belief...Gibson watched as the shield held as the building exploded, but the debris was kept from flying all around as it hit the grid wall and bounced back over and over again.

Gem fell out of her chair shaking in fear and all she could say was "Sam." as she remembered her experience from being caught in the explosion of the End of Line Club.

* * *

"Whoa... talk about cutting it close." Jet said seeing the grid wall finally run out of energy and derez.

"Hey, we are still here." Sam said into his phone. The collective sigh of relief could be heard on the other side of the line.

"Sam... I am sorry about what happened. It was like experiencing the last moments before the End of Line Club exploded all over again." Gem said over the line.

"It's alright Gem... We got everyone out." Sam said realizing that Gem must be going through all sorts of emotional hell from dying in an explosion but to witness it again... Sam wished that he could be in that room on the Grid, holding her and telling her that he was alright. Quorra looked at him and knew to some degree that Sam felt responsible for the rerezzed program. Quorra had thought it was jealously at first, but it wasn't until Gem begged on her knees for her to apologize for her actions towards the Creator and his Son. Quorra had started to understand that Gem was purely scared of the wrath and power of the Creator that being brought back from nothingness would freak anyone out.

Now this fear had been transferred from Flynn to his Son... Sam.

Sam had seen Gem as a sort of "Party girl" as the term had gone in the User World, who given some tragedy or something major having to occur in their lives wouldn't grow up or change their ways. Quorra had seen it on the news with individuals such as Sheen and Lohan. But once they hit a stage of maturity as Quorra had seen on some of the "Behind the Music" Specials, they tended to mellow out some for the lucky ones that had survived. Gem was on the wobbly feet stage, but was under the forge to become stronger. Maybe this version of Gem wouldn't be so bad considering that she was running with a different crowd now.

"Gem... Listen to me. All that fear you are feeling of _'why me, why am I still alive. there are others more worthy than I am to deserve this...'_ Gem I felt the same way, and I questioned why I was the only one to survive the Purge." Quorra paused. "Then after a while, and many cycles I came to understand that fate had placed me on a path. That I had to walk this path, to remember those who had fallen. But it was another thing. Something important. That I wasn't alone. Though I was the only one of my kind left, I wasn't the only one who was alone." Quorra looked over at Sam. "I had Sam's father. He was alone too. Same wounds, same injuries. We became family. We had our worlds torn away from us... but together we were less alone. Flynn had his dark times as I did have mine. But through it all we got a little bit of our lives back. Different than before, but worthwhile. Staying behind the scenes, watching, waiting, and learning. Being still for that moment for the game to change." Quorra grinned. "you were there when it happened. Remember Player 3?" Quorra cocked her head to one side.

"Oh Sheesh..." Gem said remembering that moment. Anna looked over at Quorra with concern and wondering what was up.

"Well, you are not alone. You have Anon, Radia, Sura, Sabi, Jalen, and Gibson there for you."

"I feel like about to fall..."

"Gem, is it that pit of your stomach feeling like you are afraid to let go that you will fall into nothingness."

"Yes." Gem sounded scared.

"That is a good sign. It means you are about to hit the forge. Just let go. That was the hardest thing for me when my life got flipped upside down." Quorra said speaking softly. "I felt like the end would come for me, I braced myself for the worse. Then as I lay there in the rubble I felt a hand reach out and take hold of me... It was Sam's Dad. He helped me up. We walked out of that mess and for I don't know how long, he nursed me back to health."

"Quorra... Do you blame me for my actions in Flynn's death?" Gem felt like she was on the verge of falling apart.

"No... No Gem... the events that played out were beyond your control. Like I said earlier before me and Sam went on this mission. What had to unfold had to unfold. Sometimes you need to change the rules some. But knowing that there is an element of Chaos present can be a good sign of things. It means the universe is trying to tell you something, you just need to listen."

"Yeah, like I'm a Sentient Program that hung with the wrong crowd. That got the Creator killed."

"Gem... You didn't kill him. He sacrificed himself to get me and Sam out of the Grid and stopped Clu from doing untold damage to the Real World." Anna looked at Quorra worried but decided to test a theory.

"Sabi... Listen are you a..."

"Self aware program. Yes! Created by Kevin Flynn. No. He did create our home. Anna went white as a sheet. "Sam... moved us from the old server that was located underneath the Arcade to the ENCOM server." there was a pause. "I am glad that the environment has been restored that we live in. Clu did a ton of damage to our system. for the most part till a few hours, well your hours ago, we didn't know that our entire system had been moved. Mostly we are still dealing with some of our fellow derezzed programs being brought back."

"So... Gem is..."

"One of the programs created by Flynn. SamFlynn feels responsible for her to some degree given her rerezzing. She has been through a lot. I think she fears you more than anything else given that you have dealt with threats greater than any warrior program. That and given how SamFlynn has described you. She thinks that you make Tron and Rinzler with their mighty warrior skills look like a no skill-set Derezzed Rookie in the games arena."

"What threats have earned me that status among your fellow programs?" Anna was getting curious at wondering what this Artificial Intelligence thought of her.

"Wyrm, Trojan, Malware, Ransomeware, Michelangelo, Root kit... Just by the description of some of these programs, they make Clu look like a pacifist." Anna Winced. "Gem thinks that there are programs that are on the system which are loyal to you have sworn to hunt her down."

"You think I am some sort of Warrior Goddess?"

"Your kind did create the Grid!"

"So, you and Gem are programs that Sam's father was working on when he disappeared? His last great breakthrough, the stuff on the hard drive that Jet was in the process of restoring."

"I don't know... We are still putting things back together here. I mean the entire Human consciousness in a Digital Space stuff is way over our heads, but the Genetic Algorithms I know a little of. I mean I have several of them incorporated into my own Isomorphic Algorithm." there was a pause a panicked yell occurred.

"Gibson... I think we have trouble heading their way."

"What is it?" Gibson said as the voice over the phone had everyone's attention.

"I checked the satellite feeds over the area. There looks to be several incoming small air craft heading their way."

"Yeah I confirm. Looks like someone hacked into some Air National Guard Armory and brought On-line some Drone aircraft/ground support gear. Types Identified as Xanatos SC-3B and Nightstone Valkyrie MK2. Looks like there are thirty of them heading your way." Gibson said as rampant tapping could be heard in the background.

"How far out are they from us?" Sam said urgently.

"They are almost on top of you." Gibson yelled as the roar of motors started to streak on by in the sky.

"Quorra, get out of here!" Sam Yelled as Quorra used her Baton for rez into existence her Grid Cycle as she shot away from where she was standing nearly missing a blast from a shell fired off from one of the incoming drones. given the tight confines of the parking lot Quorra had to come to a quick stop before Veronica.

"I will help get her to safety." Veronica said as she straddled onto the Grid cycles behind Quorra.

"Gibson, I need you to keep an eye on her and see if and the others can hack, bypass or shut down those damn Drones." Sam Said putting out his own Baton and rezzing his own Grid cycle into being and taking off after Quorra.

* * *

TBC

Next Chapter - Lightcycles in LA... Need I say more!

* * *

Note: Matt Damon was not the only actor to play Jason Bourne. There was a two part movie of the week that aired back in the late eighties. Just Check IMDB for details.

Gary's backup like comes from the Movie the Shadow... but it also shows up in the Radio Drama of the same name.

The Queen music is a shoutout to the eighties flick Highlander.

Roy Kleinberg was Alan's popcorn munching coworker from the first Tron film and the founder of the FlynnLives movment.

Gary Hammer is a reference to Doc Hammer and Gary (Hitchman 21) from the Venture Brothers.

Also information about Aayla Secura can be found at starwars. /wiki /Aayla_Secura

Amy Allen the actress who played her in the movies, I am going to use as the model for a characer in an upcoming chapter.

Hopefully by the next chapter I'll have a cast listing of who is playing what role in my mind.

If you have any suggestions for actors or acresses to play the characers in the story, let me know.

* * *

Now take some time out from your day and please place a review to this story.

Thanks.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Magic and Programs

Sorry for taking so long to update this story so far, Between School and work and Looking over RPG's stuff, I have had a full plate to deal with.

Note: I am splicing in some of the Disney Series Gargoyles into this story just to keep some of the magic technology feel to it. Hey, I am going a little retro here considering that I am placing in some images of my own miss spent youth into this story.

Note: There are MacGyver, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Gargoyles, Watchmen, X-Men, Ghostbusters, and Back the Future references spaced throughout this chapter.

For an image of what the drones look like, go to:

http:/ tgs. gargoyles-fans. org/ crpics/

http:/ tgs. gargoyles-fans. org/ crpics/

* * *

In all of her years on the Earth, Veronica Gorloisen had never experienced a ride like this. It didn't help that the girl she was riding with was moving like the conferrable Bat out of Hell.

Between moving at speeds that Veronica could barely fathom past objects that looked to be as if they were standing still... but were actually moving at speeds of an Arabian Stallion going full gallop. Veronica was glad that she wasn't the one commanding this summoned mechanical beast they were on.

"Quorra..." Veronica called out. "Couldn't we slow down?"

"I have spent too many years being hunted to realize that you don't slow down until three millicycles after you feel safe." Quorra called out as she swung the black log like mechanical stallion through the streets. "That and I think we picked up a few tails." With that Veronica turned around to see several winged humanoid figures flying behind them.

In Veronica's time creatures such as Gargoyles were rare, but a common sight. You just had to know how to speak to them. For the most part, they tended to protect their lands and hunting grounds with heavy fervor. But seeing these things fly behind them left no doubt that they were not living beings. That was when their pursuers decided to tighten their chase.

"Hold on I know a few tricks that I picked up from my days as a Grid Games competitor." Quorra called out as the bike lengthened out and increased speed.

"That is what I am afraid of dear." Veronica called out as she held on for dear life as Quorra blazed through the streets of Los Angeles as she felt the presence of a tracking spell on them.

* * *

Sam felt his heart race as he heard Gibson call out what was going on in the command center on the Grid as they started to track Quorra through the various highway and right light camera feeds Sam had given to them earlier as well as an police scanner audio feed that he had plugged into a tablet computer back at his place. Sam hoped that the mission control team could get him a bean on Quorra's current location. This was when he got the update he was praying for.

"Sam I have an active feed on Quorra going through traffic. Additionally I keep getting information about something called a Bat-Pod that is going through traffic on the same route she is on as well as you man." Sam grinned.

"Yeah... The Bat-Pod that you are hearing about happens to be me and Quorra's lightcycles."

"Then why in the Name of the User call what you are riding on a Bat-Pod?"

"Gibson, in the last Batman film, the Caped Crusader decided to put an entire motorcycle into the front of his Batmobile. After the Joker decides to blow the thing to Hell and back and to continue the chase Batman decides to activate the escape pod and it turns out to a motorcycle with some serious monstrous wheels on it. Trust me the thing looks like one of the current generation of Grid cycles."

"Well thanks for an update, but I just got another feed stating that Quorra is speeding through urban traffic and has those things gaining on her." Gibson said as he yelled at another person. "Keep the overlay of the video feeds stable Sura, if we lose a connection we cannot see where Quorra and Sam are at."

"What about Jet and the others?" Sam said realizing that he wasn't alone in this mess.

"Jet, Anna, Gary and this Dave character are in his truck. And from the looks of it, Balthazar and Becky are in his car." There was a light curse. "Looks like Balthazar is able to reconfigure his car. He is currently heading westward from your location."

"What do you mean reconfigured?" Sam said nearly dodging the rear wheels of an 18-wheeler truck.

"Looks like he changed it from one form to another. Specs read it as going from a four door Nissan Sentra to Austin Martin Vanquish."

"Say what!" Sam had to dodge another truck.

"I'm telling you what I am seeing here." Gibson said as Sam quickly started following the freeway he was on in the general direction to where Quorra was ahead of him at. "Hell Anna freaked too when she saw this."

"What does our friend Dave have anything to say about this?" Sam was getting pissed.

"Yeah... It's Magic and also follow the clouds above to get to Quorra." Sam looked up and saw the clouds almost descending down in a general direction.

"I see the clouds." Sam said stretching out the bike for more speed. Sam hoped that this Dave character was giving Jet and the others the information they needed about how he was doing the weather tracking on Quorra. So far they had gotten a fifth wheel added to the mix with Gary, but considering what was going on. Gary might give some more insight of what was going on with these Mordrid guys and what little piece that the guy had placed on the web that got these guys so pissed.

* * *

"Okay. Let me get this straight? You have Super powers!" Gary said as he sat in the back seat next to Dave Stutler as he explained the rough version of what was going on. Dave was a superhero and a rookie one at that. Dave had several months earlier had taken down some big bad super villainous called Morgana and one of her head follower called Horvath. Now the rest of Morgana's followers were looking for Dave; and given the weirdness surrounding Quorra's appearance on the scene, had thought Quorra was Dave given the symbols on Kevin Flynn's Gravestone that matched the order that Dave and Balthazar belonged to. Because of these symbols the bad guys had thought Quorra was part of the order as well.

This was all caused by all of the current leads the bad guys were running with were based on that single tabloid picture. It was like Lex Luthor thinking Jimmy Olsen was Superman.

"Yes, see magic is actually a quantum phenomenon that takes place whenever a person who has mental abilities that are running at 90% above a normal person's mental state. Because of this they are able to influence matter at the quantum mechanical level." Dave said is Jet steered the truck down the freeway. "You tend to see this phenomenon the most whenever an individual plays the lottery. Whenever they don't think about the numbers. They tend to win big." Dave paused before continuing on. "Because of this individuals such as myself are able to influence minor events to behave to however we desire. But there are rules we have to play by, foremost we have to limit the number of people who know about the phenomenon because it changes the outcome to the point where we cannot control safely. In your guys' cases, we have had to make a large exception in that Quorra is literally saturated in magical quantum energy. That is probably the reason why the members of the Morganian Order think that she is me. We are emitting the same amount of energy from our body. That and given that she just appeared on the grid just a little while ago claiming to be the student of the great Kevin Flynn, well she has been a little showy of her skills. That is probably why the people trying to kill her right now because of her super large and superhuman IQ that she used to increase power efficiency for an entire twenty block in downtown LA around the ENCOM Building. "Dave finished as he watched as they did their best to negotiate through the highway traffic at night while attempting to stay within the legal speed limit thanks to Gibson's exceptional navigational skills in cyberspace.

"So in other words, these guys that are after her think that she will put them out of job. Because she might solve the energy crisis?" Anna said watching the road unfold before them.

"No... Because I destroyed their leader by channeling the entire CON-ED power grid right into their boss vaporizing her butt as she was on the verge of taking over the world with a legion of reanimated undead warriors."

"Great... Just Great... I'm riding in a truck with the guy who took down a super-villain and her minions are pissed at him, but think my best friend did it." Anna said shaking her head. "Between the Neurotic program with issues, and the flying robots of doom, I half expect to learn that my best friend is a Cylon by the time this night is done."

* * *

Meanwhile on the Grid, the command center was hopping with action as Programs moved around giving status updates to Anon and Gibson as they tried their best to figure out the most efficient paths for Quorra to take to keep her out of danger from her attackers.

For one program named Gem... She felt that she needed to do more, but she didn't know what to do.

This wasn't what she was programmed for.

Gem watched as the images on the screens started to unfold. she had never felt this powerless in her life. Then she saw the face of Quorra's passenger as they drove by a traffic camera. The images flashed through her memory as she realized who it was.

It was her User... An image that she had only seen during her rest cycles after being rerezzed back into existence.

Then she felt herself floating out of time from the chaos of the room she was in and taken to someplace else.

* * *

_Gem..._

Gem felt the hand on her shoulder as she turned around from the mirror. The dark haired female User grinned at her. Gem was on the verge of kneeling before the woman in respect of the User, but was stopped. This was the image from the dream she had earlier from her previous rest cycle, but this time it felt more real. It felt like someone had paused the video file and now she resuming it from the last point she had seen.

_Gem... It will be okay._

_The others... they are... _Gem looked over to see several forms spread about on various pieces of furniture looking like they were off-line.

_Resting... Yes... They have been through much... So have you._

Gem had been walked through a door that was lightly lit then she was sat down on a couch. It had felt similar to the one she had often lounged on at the End of Line Club. The smell was different than it was on the Grid. But it felt much like the home of the Creator. Cozy. Disarming. And that is what scared her the most.

_I got some clothes for you, well considering that your former vestments are pretty much destroyed._

Gem looked down at her body. Other than the bed sheet she was wrapped in, she was naked and with different data skin.

_Stand up; I'll help you get dressed._

The experience was strange. Was this what SamFlynn had felt like when she and her fellow Sirens had dressed him for the Games. Undergarments, Sports bra, leggings, shirt, and then stockings. Then came the shoes. Everything felt so different. That was when Gem looked out the window at the now brightly lit sky. It was the same color of blue that many of the Programs that were loyal to the Users possessed. That was when Gem fell to her knees.

_Gem..._

_Just a lot to take in..._

_That was when the pain hit..._

_Oh, User..._

Gem winced through the pain...

_What is it?_

_I feel like I am in two places._

Gem felt herself against the terminal in the command center on the grid.

The floor of the User World tower

_Gem you are out of liner time, your past and future are colliding._

That was when the User reached out and suddenly Gem saw a flow of events between the two versions of herself. That was when she saw her other self. The scared Siren Program and the Program Incarnate in the User World.

Then Gem felt a pair of hands take her face in them.

_I will reintegrate you into your time frames, but there will be a little bleed over in your memories. So there will be a little Déjà Vu and Presque vu experienced by you as this happens._

That was when Gem looked over at the screen as she felt her disk sync as she became grounded in one reality as she got a glimpse of an event that she realized she had journeyed to the User World to see.

It was sacred and it wasn't the sunrise there or seeing the Blue Sky...

She could hear Alan 1's voice...

_Gem... Keep her calm..._

_Alan... She is breathing rapidly._

_Just make sure that she doesn't breathe too rapidly._

_Oh, in the name of the Creator... Alan... __**IT'S COMING! WHAT DO I DO NEXT**__?_

Then Gem saw the miracle that would stay with her to her last day.

She would to be there to make sure that...

No... She had been there for that event to balance the scales of her past actions.

With that she had her purpose of why she had been returned. Even as she felt the memory fade away into the shadows of time yet to come. With that Gem held onto those memories as she realized that event she had seen and the others in her mind were of the history to come. Quorra had to survive so that Gem could see the Miracle of new life.

_Gem Serena Sanchez_

* * *

Gem found herself back in the command center and looked at the monitor and remembering the events to come as she could still feel the warmth and stickiness on her hands of the young User that she had helped bring into existence.

"Quorra, I need you to get as far into the left hand lane now... and I mean **NOW!**" Gem yelled into her mic.

"Gem?" Quorra said through the pain.

"Do it now!" Gem said panicked.

The moment Quorra did the action, a large piece of debris came flying off the back of a truck before her as it crashed through the middle of the windshield of a police cruiser that had started to chase her.

"Now swing to a right and take the upcoming ramp before you." Gem said as she almost see the road before them play out seconds before they actually happened.

"Gem how are you doing this?" Quorra said as she saw one of the drones zip over her head missing its target with its weapons and colliding into a light pole to explode on impact.

"Tell Veronica that she place a message in a bottle spell on my disk. That we sent it back through time to aid you in the battle to come. The things one has to do to save the life of a User that hasn't come into being rezzed into existence yet." Gem said as she gritted through her teeth through the pain of having two sets of memories in her head as she fought hard to hold onto the set of memories pertaining to the present events before her. After a long moment Gibson came onto the line as he spoke into his microphone.

"Head hard to the left to the overpass onramp and go to the sign that says highway 101. Stay on that road until you see the overpasses on the outskirts of the urban area." with that the dots on the overlay maps started to show an intercept course. "I don't know how Gem did it but she put Quorra on an intercept course with you and Jet and this Balthazar character."

"Who is going to get there first?" Sam said as he weaved through traffic.

"Given the current course you are on you should intersect in several minutes with Quorra."

"Gotcha... Now Gibson, start working on getting those attack drones away from her." Sam said as he slid through traffic well above the posted speed limit.

"I'm on it." Gibson said as he rushed back to his terminal and started to use his hacking skills that he learned from the Creator himself as he started to trace back the signal the drones were receiving and not obeying.

* * *

Captain Shaner of the Air Force Remote Operations Command Center in an undisclosed location in California was doing his best along with the others in his command to restore control over the remote unmanned drones that had been hacked into. From the looks of it someone had directly got into the Operating System functions and had just taken over the unmanned drones from a remote site. With everyone in the room on full alert, they were in the middle of a crisis on American Soil. It looked like whoever was controlling these drones, was targeting one specific person or individuals on the back of a custom motor cycle.

"Tell LAPD that we need a license plate or some direct line live traffic video feed on that motorcycle we need to get a message to that rider." Shaner's commander called out to the staff in the war room.

"Sir LAPD has states that there are reports of two of those bikes." One of the lieutenants said. The room started to bustle more and more as information started to come in from the field. Captain Shaner stared at the computer monitor as he slowly started to run through the computer diagnostics that were needed to get the rampaging drones back online. Then something started to happen. There was a lag on the system, but it was as if every computer on the network had been commanded to do something. Then hitting the Function-Control-Alt-Delete buttons on his keyboard, Shaner called up the Task manager to see that the memory, hard drive and processor speeds were starting to max out. With a few more clicks, the network load had increased by a factor of a thousand.

Then... Before Shaner could speak up to state there had been an intrusion on the network there was a beep as on the monitor one of the drones had been transferred back to the Remote Operations Center. Then another, and another. Quickly the cascade continued throughout the system to the point where most of the drones had been returned to human control. Out of the group of 30 drones, 20 had been placed back under the control of the command center and were accepting return commands. The 10 remaining drones that had not been returned to the Command Center, Captain Shaner did his best to try to locate the source of the unauthorized entry into the military data network... Then he got a message across this screen and the others.

_**WILL YOU GUYS GIVE ME A SECOND. YOU WANT THESE ROBOTS BACK, I AM GIVING THEM TO YOU FOR PETE'S SAKE MAN.**_

_**THE GIRL ON THE MOTORCYCLE IS MY FRIEND.**_

_**I'M DOING MY BEST TO SAVE HER LIFE FROM THE INDIVIDUALS WHO JUST TRIED TO KILL HER EARLIER TONIGHT ALL BECAUSE OF A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY.**_

_**THIS WAS ALL BEFORE THESE DUMB ASSES DECIDED TO HACK INTO THESE THINGS AND ARE TRYING TO KILL HER WITH THEM.**_

With that the screen blanked back to their normal status as the Colonel of the division started to yell.

"I want you to find out who is helping us and find out how in God's good name this guy was able to do what he just did."

"Sir there are still several drones that neither we nor our friendly hacker has been able to take back control of." Shaner said as the computers on the drones started to respond to the commands they were given.

"Alright, then I want you to see if any other division has been hacked into by our hacker here or the people that took over our drones. The last thing we need is the software to do this winding up on the Internet and having some fool in Afghanistan or Iraq being able to fire on our own forces with our own drones." With that calls started to go out to the different agencies with the Department of Defense and the various intelligence agencies that were part of the United States Government as programmers in the command center did their best to help wrangle the drones back to base.

* * *

Gibson was pounding on his terminal using hacking techniques that he had dug up off of this computer Network called the Internet. Between what Flynn had taught him during their friendship that lasted several Cycles made him respect the User to the point that other than Tron, Gibson probably knew more about Flynn's User life than the head Monitor program himself... Well Second to Quorra, the things she must have learned about the Grid during her time as Flynn's apprentice. But the message Gibson had placed up to the User's terminal on the Defense Network had at least stopped the fighting over the system for the time being, but it was the rest of the mess that he had to deal with at present as he kept hacking in the name of the Creator.

"Okay... looks like the first twenty of these drones were easy since I did the entire virtual memory trick I read up on this Wikipedia data page." Gibson said as Anon started on working on putting up defenses with the rest of the Programs that Gibson had brought with him. "Anon, I need you to run some protection and diversions from these guys from getting our position. The last thing I want to do is get the entire Grid Derezzed by some defense system." Anon nodded as they looked at the data on the screens as between the chase several o the drones had started to peel off and head back to their base.

That was when Sabi noticed that two pairs of the drones that Gibson hadn't been able to hack back under his control had peeled off to head off after Sam, and from those four, one had peeled off to head off after Balthazar's car and Jet's cargo transport.

"Jet... Is there a way for Dave to communicate with Balthazar, because he is about to have one of those flying attack drones come after him and you guys." Sabi called out as she noticed it too and got a jump on things as Gibson was working a near Supercomputer Program speeds.

The speaker chirped up as Jet started to call out.

"Sabi... wait, you mean that we have one of those flying monkeys from Hell chasing after us."

"Yeah... It should be approaching your position in about the next few seconds." With that Sabi hoped that Jet could drive that transport defensively as someone could during a light runner competition.

"Jet, I need to get into the back of your pickup." Dave said thinking up a plan.

"What do you mean man, unless you have a rocket launcher on you, I don't think that even with your superpowers you will be able to take out that flying monkey that is about to be on our butts." Jet yelled back.

"Hey you still have those fuel cells in the back of your tuck and those shield thingies on the front of this thing right?"

Jet had forgotten about the modifications that Sam and Quorra had made to his truck. "Yeah, why..." Then it hit. "Hey, if you can MacGyver that thing into some sort of laser cannon then I'm with you man." With that Jet pulled over the side of the road and got out along with Dave and handed the young User one of the batons from the front of the transport as Dave started to dive into the back and started to mess with the power cables.

"The drone is about to be on top of you in a matter of moments." Sabi said as pulled out her baton and looked at it.

"Jet... are the baton's that Quorra built similar to the ones here on the Grid?"

"Uh?" Jet said to the question.

"Uh... they look like they are the same design... Hell, I got the look into Quorra's memories when we were checking out to see if Sam was an honorable person from her memories and she downloaded Veronica's. Give me a sec..." a moment later Dave's voice chirped in before speaking again. "okay... the main detach circuitry panel is gotten to through prying loose the main panel that runs along the dark wooden edge by the four dots on top. After that go through and pull the unit's cover off to get to the main inside guts of the unit.

Sabi looked at her baton in shock before she had been able to pry it apart to explain some of the functions to this User.

"Yeah... Okay so the main power distribution gets fed in from a main energy source in a contained vile... Wow... talk about using a nine-volt battery in an interesting way. Okay, I think I can tweak this to do what I want it to do."

"Sabi... I think that Dave is in his own world of I'll have it built for you in no time, just let me talk out loud so that I can keep track where I am at in the build."

"Uh ah..." Sabi said back to Jet as Dave rambled on circuit leads and where to shove the wires to. That was when Sabi saw footage of User Balthazar's transport come on screen and wondered what was happening in that transport.

* * *

Balthazar was racing down the Los Angeles freeway as he and Becky sat side by side.

Given Becky's youth, she knew how to follow the road signs and track the energy patters using the bracelet that Dave had given her. One thing about Quorra, was that she left a serious energy wake in her path. That was when after several attempts Becky had been able to get through to Dave's Cell phone.

"Dave... It's Becky..." Balthazar listened as Becky got through to Dave's phone.

"Who the Hell are you?" There was a pause... "Wait... you are the slut that nearly dry-humped that guy by the door of the restaurant." Becky was pissed. "Yeah... So what do you mean..." Becky turned to look out the back window and saw something following them. "Oh, crap... Thanks... Tell Dave to do his Science Magic stuff alright." With that Becky turned towards Balthazar. "Uh, Balthazar, I think we are about to have company." Balthazar checked the review mirror.

"I agree with you there, Becky." With that Balthazar changed the car to a British Convertible version of the car they were driving. "I need you to take the wheel while I deal with our uninvited guest." Balthazar said as he reached over and hit the button that would retract the hard roof on the dash and unfastened his seatbelt so that he could turn around and have a clear line of sight on his target. "Okay my large metallic friend, time to dance." With that Balthazar took out a tire gage and a ballpoint pen and applied a kinetic charge to the pin and used the tire gage as a representation of air pressure around the drone. Suddenly as the spell was cast the displacement weight of the drone started to double as the under the phenomenon known as a microburst started to cause the drone to start to burn through more and more fuel to stay aloft. Considering that whenever an aircraft starts to have zero lift under its wings, there is only so much a propellant based engine can do to direct an aircraft along in any direction. So the only thing the drone had left to do was to either go faster or slower. With a through of the pen Balthazar had in his hand. The six and a half inches of metal was flown right into the vent duct and remolded into a cap. So like a potato in a car's tailpipe or if you were a fan of the _Beverly Hills Cop_ movies a banana the drone had the flight characteristics of a brick. With the sound of the scraping of metal against asphalt the drone crashed to the ground.

"Looks like you got rid of our flying monkey problem." Becky said realizing that Veronica and Quorra were still in danger. "We need to catch up with Veronica and Quorra and make sure that they are okay." With that Becky started to speak into her phone to get the latest update on the others. "Anna... What is the update on your Friend?" There was a long pause. "Okay... Tell your friend Gibson to hack like a crazed madman." Becky looked up to Balthazar. "Balthazar... I think we need to have a plan, to buy Quorra some more time." Balthazar nodded at this.

"Understood Becky." With that Balthazar sat back down in the car and fastened his seatbelt and changed the car back to the American version and drove like the professional racer back in the days of the_ West Coast 500_ hoping that this Flynn character had a plan for getting out of his Matrix Reloaded mess.

* * *

Sam watched the road unfold before him as he saw Quorra's lightcycle zoom by under him as he looped over the overpass he was on. That was when Sam heard Radia over his phone giving him an update on the situation with Quorra.

"SamFlynn... You have two of those attack drones after you." With that Sam figured that he would have use those racing skills that he picked up during CLU's lightcycle match from Hell. Whomever was out there after Quorra wasn't taking any chances.

"Understood." Sam Looked over his shoulder to see a very slick and almost feminine looking drone coming after him. Sam hadn't wanted to use the Light ribbon that the lightcycle had, but considering that it was his only defensive weapon that he had, he decided that he needed to use something else and he had the right tool for the job. But to use it, he needed to get ahead of Quorra.

"Radia... I need you to help me find the quickest route for me to get ahead of Quorra. I might have a plan, but right now I am making it as I go. I but I need to get ahead of her to make it work."

"I'll see what I can do." Radia said as Sam hoped that this plan might work as he thought of Quorra and the future they might have together.

* * *

Quorra had remembered in the events surrounding the Purge, the race she had to do down the tower of the End of Line Club after CLU had unleashed one of his most powerful weapons at that time... _The Regulator_, his command carrier that had leveled the building along with a horde of recognizers shooting down any survivors who had been able to rez up their lightcycles to race down the side of the building. Quorra and the System Monitor Anon had been lucky enough to get to the bottom. Now as Quorra sped over the highway to elude her pursuers that situation repeated in her mind as she thought of SamFlynn and the life she had built here in the Real World. She had wondered if she could procreate like the other Users here could. There were new Users being created, but what of Isos? There had been no new Isos created since the poisoning of the Sea of Simulation, now... The Rerezzing... and the healing of the Grid after so much death. There needed to be new life to start the process off again.

Quorra wanted to live to see that.

Then the roadway started to clear out as drivers started to part out of the way to allow them through as if and outside force had told them to move.

"Veronica... are you doing this?" Quorra called out as she forced more speed out of her ride.

"Yes Quorra... I used my powers to make us look like a Sheriff's carriage heading down the road." Veronica said as she started to whisper an illusion incantation to ensure that Quorra's ride would not impeded as they rushed at mind blowing speeds.

"Gem, if you have any other tricks up your digital sleeve… I would surely like to hear about them now." Quorra said as Veronica turned to look behind them to see that they had fewer of those feau Gargoyles chasing them.

"Quorra, be ready for Sam to make his move." Gem said as she waited to hear more word from the others in the control center.

"I will, but what is Sam going to do?"

"I do not know, but be ready to accelerate for the gap when it presents itself to you."

"Understood Gem." Quorra said as she readied herself for whatever was to happen next.

* * *

Gibson was on the verge of throwing a data tablet through the monitor given that every trick that he had tried so far had just ended with those drones still under the same hostile remote access that he had attempted to hack through. Gritting his teeth he called into the headset.

"Sam we have a problem... Looks like every tick that I know and a few that I picked up from your Old Man have gotten me zip." Gibson said as he groaned in defeat.

"It can't be that hard Gibson, I mean your system is plugged into a 650 petabyte cloud computer server capable of processing One point eight quadrillion bits of data a second. And furthermore is hooked into close to two million consoles capable of running concurrent parallel processes even with a system lag. He'll you could have hacked the Pentagon a few hundred times already. " Sam said over the line.

"Sam, I hacked the entire internet to get the first batch of drones off of Quorra's behind, but it is these last few that are being stubborn." Gibson said looking for a way to get more speed. "I'm just not fast enough to access these terminals with my two hands." Gibson said in frustration. "Ever since we had that display up following you guys around in real time, I just feel so helpless." That was when Sam spoke up.

"Wait you are following us in real time?" Sam's question threw Gibson off.

"What do you mean Sam?" then Sam explained it.

"Gibson your world is moving faster than mine at a factor of ten." Then it hit the both of them, only time that the system had slowed down like this was when… Gibson looked at the monitors as Sam cursed under his breath at the Obvious problem that showed itself to the along with the answer.

"Sam we need to cut the video data link between our worlds." Gibson said noticing for the first time the amount of bandwidth the Periscope codec was taking up in rendering communication with the Grid and the Real World.

"If we do that we can squeeze out the extra computing speed we need to tell those robots to bug off." Sam said as he was able to use the jump function on his bike that Quorra had taught him to do on the light cycles after they had experimented with them one weekend by the docks after returning to the real world to leap over a squad car that had attempted to put up a roadblock before him. "Gibson... who put the stationary jump functions in the lightcycles? Because it is one kick ass feature that I would love to have on my old man's Ducati."

"I think it was your old man when he created the third generation light cycles." Sam grinned at this.

"Well you can tell me more about it later after me and Quorra get through this mess." Sam knew that he was getting close to the location that Radia had found for him that was over the highway Quorra was racing on.

"Well I'll tell the others about that." With that Gibson got on the lines with the others to tell them about what was going to happen next.

"Okay Programs we have a plan and it is going to something so crazy that even the Creator himself would be proud of it." Gibson said as he signed off as he looked at the last image on the screen fade of Jet's modified truck now racing down to Quorra's position.

* * *

Jet looked at the modifications that Dave had done to his truck as he drove. Some of the stuff was beyond his comprehension, but hey in the space of a minute, the guy had done a Doctor Manhattan with his powers to create a proton blaster from Ghostbusters, shields from Star Trek, and a flying DeLorean convert job to this truck. At this point Jet was liking the guy for this mad skills. Hell given how Gary was drooling over the guy and Jet had to quote this to Sam later:

Dave looks like Wolverine's geeky brother, crossed with the knowledge base of a Galfrayian Doctor, MacGyver, Scotty from Star Trek, and the superpowers of Forge mixed in with Magneto. Now with Dave in the backseat acting as turret gunner and Anna on the tablet computer getting updates on the situation would prove to be an interesting drive.

"Guys..." Gibson called out over the speakers of the tablet computer. "... Sam has come up with a plan, but it will take a little faith on your part. We have figured out how to hack the last of the drones after you, but there is some bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Everyone's stomach took in a sinking feeling as this was going to be bad.

"We have to sever the links between the Grid and you guys, which means that I won't be able to give you any traffic or tactical updates." Gibson said as he continued on. "The good news is that while we are off, the drones should get the message to head home."

"So how long are you going to be out of communication?" Jet said wondering this was going to be a long time.

"Don't know, it depends on how stubborn this hacker is to get the point of leave you guys alone." Gibson said as the sounds of sparks could be occurring in the background and he swore under his breath... Well Gibson did swear... But it was more like an opera singer saying something under their breath, ala Elmer Fudd hunting rabbets subtle, while singing on stage during a performance of Wagner's Die Walkűre and you get the tone of Gibson's voice with that word.

"So a while then!" Anna said stating her point.

"Hey you upgrade a computer network's encryption from standard 128/256 to something serious." Gibson said giving something a hard swift kick. "Listen, I'm starting a countdown now but be ready to help Sam and Quorra out when the chance presents itself."

"I'll pass the message on to Becky and Balthazar."

"Good... Starting in Five, four, three, two, one..." With that the link ended then the preferable fecal matter hit the wall.

"Guy's we have incoming." Dave said as he pulled out the proton blaster and leveled it at the incoming drone and fired.

* * *

Back on the Grid, Gibson way lying on the floor of the operations center as he spoke into his headset as his fellow programs were scurrying about helping him disconnect the monitors from their viewing of the Real World as he proceeded to chat with the Son of Flynn.

Gem look like she was a few shades away from looking like she was half Derezzed.

And Radia herself wondered about the crazy plan the Bostrom Iso Gibson and Sam Flynn had come up with... Then Gibson started a countdown.

"Good... Starting in Five, four, three, two, one..." With that Gibson hit the switch and other than the interface with the direct leads into the User World defense network, the entire Grid was now cut off from the User World. With that Gibson slid over to one of the data terminals and started typing.

"Do you think that this will work Gibson?" Radia said as she watched the program start to create new subroutines and hack code in way that Radia had only seen Flynn do whenever some problem had presented itself on the Grid.

"Well, Sam and I came up with this theory given Moore's law. Which states computer speed doubles every eighteen months. So that given that the Grid was constructed about thirty years ago and given the time dilation that Flynn used while the portal was closed should more or less give us the speed we need to get those drones off of Sam and Quorra's behinds.

This was when Radia moved in.

"What do you mean, by speeding up the Grid?" Radia watched as it had started raining and the IO towers were glowing as bright as the Beacon that announced Flynn's arrival on the Grid. "The rain is falling at the same speed as it has before."

"See the Grid exists in a bubble that makes it able to exist outside of User World Time. Given that the current system that the Grid currently exists on is running at speeds up to 600 times faster than the old system was on."

"What do you mean by Old System?" Sabi spoke up wondering what was going on.

"Flynn while he was away from the Grid tended to the system with physical repairs." This was when Gibson decided to drop the other shoe. "CLU's damage to the Grid was quite extensive and as a result Sam had to move the entire Grid to a new Server. Considering that there was a nest of bugs called cockroaches making their home in one of the large sections of memory storage and it took about two days for Sam to get rid of them all." The cringe from everyone in the room was now clear considering that Grid Bugs were large, but having a nest present and making their home on the grid had made the color drain from everyone's pixels. "Now this new Server has quite a large amount of computational power at its disposal and is for the most part cockroach free."

"But the Grid looked like it was before... I was expecting it to be, you know... Different." Sabi said looking out the window.

"Well Given that the Grid was on a so vintage of a system, the Grid had to be placed on a program environment called an Emulator. From this emulator any system can be duplicated in detail and any upgrades can be done without even shutting the system down. For the most part Sam had the system set to run at speeds similar to the old hardware. All that needs to take place is for the User or some program on the inside to do the tweaking parameters to ensure that the system runs under the load needs that are presented to it. All I have to do is do some minor adjustments and tweak the speed so..." with that the towers started glowing in a Rhythmic pattern of flickering pulses to dictate the binary code to the other parts of the worldwide network the Grid was now tied to. "We can do this."

"What are we doing?" Anon said as the flow of data rising from the terminals started to slow down beyond anything he had seen.

"Speeding up time for us so that we can do the impossible. We are going to do things in these moments where if it was raining in the User World if a drop of rain was a finger lengths away from hitting Sam's and Quorra's heads... you could walk back and forth from Flynn's Safe house to the beacon a few hundred times before hit even began to hit their head." Gibson said as he started to sort through code and start implementing some of the theories that he and Flynn had come up with their time on the Grid.

"So how long do you think this is going to take to get those drones off of Sam and the other's behinds." Sabi said worried.

"Well long enough for you all to take Gem down to have a diagnostic run on her, have the results done and a good rest period before I am completely done." Gibson said as Anon looked at Gem and saw that her disk was syncing again.

"We'll take care of that." Anon said as he moved over to support Gem.

"Well be back soon, I have a bit of code for you to help me deal with." Gibson said as he started implementing the first part of the system upgrades to the United States Military Defense Network.

* * *

Captain Shaner watched as suddenly the United States Military Defense Computer Network seemed to be almost rewriting itself in real time. Firewalls looked like they were being upgraded with... _**QUANTUM ENCRYPTION**_!

"Sir... Looks like your White Hat Hacker is doing something that even our friends in R and D said was impossible."

"What is it Captain?" The Unit Commander spoke up as he moved over to Shaner's station.

"Take a look at this sir." With that the Commander's face when white as a sheet. The network was moving past 256 bit encryption to 512, to 1024 and every second the levels started to double. Soon it was hitting 37888 then 108554 before hitting 1280000 bit encryption at the end of its run as the firewall got placed in it a thirty foot barbwire fence surrounded with motion detectors, land mines, bouncing Betty land mines, anti-tank land mines, surveillance cameras five more layers of barbwire fences with motion detectors, subsurface mics, radar, floodlights, and a slew of anti-aircraft missiles, observation towers and sniping posts. Then the system started to repel attacks from various intrusions from every teen-aged hacker to the most crazed conspiracy nut.

"Who in the Hell is doing this to us?" The Commander said as suddenly the remaining drones started to respond quickly with a few hold outs that were struggling to remain under foreign control. One of those had been taken down by a guy in the back of a pickup truck with what looked to be a proton Blaster from Ghostbusters. But it was the final two that looked to be... heading after a strange tank that had appeared on an overpass. Then with two shots the drones went off-line as they had been shot down by the gunner on the tank as the strange Motorcycle zoomed pass free of its pursuers under the overpass.

"Forget that... Whoever did this, typed in those commands in real-time." Shaner said as he looked at the strange tank that disintegrated and reveal a single person running towards the back of... Wait the truck with the individual in the back with the Proton Blaster was hovering near the overpass like the DeLorean from the Back to the Future Movies. "Sir... Whatever just went down... We might have either a new threat or a new player on the field." They watched as the Truck flew off and cloaked out of existence like a Klingon bird of Prey.

"I agree with you there Captain... Get me a secure line to the Joint chiefs and the Situation Room. We need to tell them about this." The Commander said looking at the amount of new system security in place and the message that was displayed on the Screen.

_**YOUR SYSTEM IS NOW SECURE FROM FURTHER ATTACKS LIKE THIS.**_

_**MY FRIENDS ARE NOW SAFE.**_

_**BROUGHT TO YOU BY GIBSON OF BOSTROM AND FRIENDS.**_

* * *

Sam felt adrenaline rushing through his body as he guided his lightcycle to the overpass that would give him a clear line of sight. Between the five police cars chasing him, it would take about five seconds for them to stop and get out of their cruisers after he stopped. So doing a wide wheel spin the distance he would need to do his magic trick as the light ribbon formed around him. Stopping and Derezzing his bike Sam rushed to the center and started his second Rez.

Before Sam had liberated Quorra from the command deck of Clu's carrier, he had hit the armory to load up on weapons not knowing what he would face. Being prepared for the worse to have to fight his way out of a large number of forces before him. One of the items he downloaded to his baton was a Grid Tank along with the usual personal armaments that Sam could pinch from the shelves. Using that stored vehicle now, Sam activated it and like the times back at his Dad's old arcade when he played Space Paranoids. Seeing the screen before him made him wish that these were super large Recognizers and not little flying drones. Given that these things were closing in on Quorra... Sam had to breathe slowly and take aim on each target. As the light ribbon faded Sam lined up his Shot and fired off his first round taking out one of the drones. Sam could see the explosion take place as Quorra and her passenger started to book faster as another drone came into range. Then Sam took his shot as his phone beeped.

"Sam... Got the drones or at least the ones that weren't taken down back under their original network commands." Gibson said knowing that Sam had other things on his mind.

"That's good, but right now I need a way out without having to destroy some local law enforcement vehicles." Sam could hear with that Sam fired off the second round before the drone got a chance to fly over the overpass he was on.

"Sam... turn the turret around and take a look at what Dave did to Jet's truck." with that Sam looked to see that Dave was a genius as he rotated the turret around. Something in the back of Sam's mind said that after this and all of the strangeness has calmed down to give Dave some funding to aid in whatever research he wanted to do in the future. This would probably aid on helping achieve his Father's dream to change the world. Seeing the light ribbon collapse, Sam knew that it would only be moments before the police officers before they were upon him. Derezzing the Tank, Sam sprinted across the overpass and leapt into the back of Jet's pickup truck and with a tap on the roof; Sam saw that Quorra and her passenger were now sitting back there with him too. Quorra moved over and hugged Sam tight as Sam smelled her raven black hair.

For the time being they were safe as they flew through the sky in the most unconventional craft in an unconventional city.

* * *

Back on the Grid, Gibson stretched out in his chair to exhale in relief for the first time in a long time.

For the last 300 Millicycles he had hacked like no one had ever hacked before. Hell even the MCP of old had not been able to do what he had done in the 12.5 days given the math Flynn had told him about how the Users divided up their time periods. Things had settled into a dull roar of action of just getting those Drone things off of Quorra and Sam's behinds. No one had told him about how much of the computer architecture that he would have to fight through and fix was so out of date even by the standards of the Grid and even that of the latest computer security as seen by Flynn OS 12. Most of what Gibson had to do was Upgrade, repaired and overhaul code in ways that was desperately needed. But after he was done and the drones returned to the User Operators in their Military command center that Gibson decided to log off with a little message stating who had done the work.

Looking over to see Gem after the diagnostic she had gone through to see if she was functioning properly, had revealed much. Somehow, Veronica... Quorra's passenger had worked with Sam and surprisingly him to create a means to send data back through time. Gem from what they had learned had volunteered for the upload of data to her disk... And... Well reviewing Gem's memories... Her future memories stated that she had been present for something of great importance to her. Though the images were gone, some of the audio had remained intact. Radia almost fainted when she heard Tron's voice coming through the speakers and he was talking her through something pertaining to an injured User and something was coming.

Through in that Gem's visions had for the most part had come to an end, she had become determined to learn all she could on how to repair a User. She had been reading a text called _Grey's Anatomy_, and introductory Biology as she came into the command center. Between the tablet she had of the running time line of what she had seen... Most of her studies had been directed to figuring how the User had become damaged and what best to do to repair them. But that wasn't the biggest thing to have taken place.

Rumors had been spreading that there were new programs on the Grid, sent by SamFlynn himself to personally track down and Delete CLU. There was even a rumor that there were New Isos on the Grid. Only Anon and Radia had been privy to many of the true facts as Gibson worked on the User World Defense network to upgrade and kick the hostile Users off of the system. Now it was nearing the time when Gibson would open up communications with the User World again.

The tension in the room was palpable as Gibson said "Sam... got the drones or at least the ones that weren't taken down back under their original network commands." With that Everyone in the room watched as the various monitors started to light up and display the scene before them... What they all saw on the Screens stated that this Dave Stutler character had done the impossible as he moved in and sniped off the Drone that had been chasing SamFlynn thus allowing Sam to fire off the two shots that took down the two Drones pursuing Quorra and her passenger. Seeing that the light wall was on the verge of collapsing, Gibson told Sam where to look and as the Light wall finally dissolved Sam was sprinting across the roadway and leaped into the back the Jet's transport before it was able to race away to safety.

As the room quieted down Gibson heard Sam thank him for his work and put this mind towards other things. Such as learning what Radia had been up to given all of these rumors that were flying about on the Grid and which ones were true. For the time being Gibson just wanted to find a bed and sleep for a 100 millicycles or so and get some rest.

* * *

Note:

Petabyte - 1 PB = 1,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes of information (B = 1015) B in comparison to a Gigabyte which is 1,000,000,000 bytes of data (B = 109) which means 1 PB is equal to 1,000,000, GB

Ergo 650,000,000 is the Space on the ENCOM Server that the Grid now rests on.

Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter done, but I hope that you all liked it.

Right now I am working on the next chapter as well finishing up my other stories.

The next chapter will be a Grid based chapter to fill in the twelve and a half days that passed while Gibson was hacking and we will learn what happened to Rinzler/Tron as he was being fished out of the Sea of Simulation.

Thanks for Darth Stronius for recommending the name Shaner as a character name, though I didn't use it for a Program, I felt that the name worked out well for my command center scene in this chapter.

I wish to do a call out to Chibi Devilchan on whose Tron Legacy character designs gave me a character that I will be starting out my next chapter with.

And RPGingmaster, thanks for the pointing out of the errors I made in the Beta for this chapter.

Well let me know what you all have thought of it, So please click the blue button below and leave a review.

And a thought to leave you with for the chapters to come.

"So if you are Athena, then that would make Gem, Caprica Six?" - Which character would you want to say this line in an upcoming chapter?

Hearns


	12. Chapter 11

Magic and Programs Chapter 11

This chapter will cover the near two weeks that passed on the Grid while Gibson was hacking the drones away from Sam and Quorra. Now on with the story.

Zuzu was created by chibi_devilchan at Deviantart. com

* * *

Zuzu was doing her best to put things together as she stood on the shore of the Sea of Simulation. Her head hurt as her memories felt _discombobulated _as the last clear things she remembered was attending the ceremony where Radia of Arjia was going to be installed as co-administrator to the Grid. There was a Virus attack... Programs were screaming and running away from the chaos. Zuzu remembered tripping and falling in the plaza as one of the infected tried to get her before they were derezzed by the System Guardian Tron. Then with urgency she and anyone else that had enough sense in their heads cleared out so that the System security could come in and deal with the threat.

She remembered being asked out for drinks at the End on Line Club by one of her friends who was planning on hooking her up with this program she knew from work so Zuzu could unwind from the experience. Zuzu had stated that she needed to get her disk checked out to her friend, but said that she would make up the drinks some other time.

Then... She was on a transport back to the Iso Sector on the Grid to be checked out for any infection.

Zuzu put her hand to her head as she had to sit down as she tried to remember what happened... That was when she felt the hood of her jacket slosh behind her. Reaching back she felt wet...

Shucking her jacket off she saw that the hood was full to the brim with liquid energy... That was when Zuzu started to panic as she looked down to see that she was drenching wet and the bottom of her boots looked like they were on the verge of derezzing off of her feet.

Had she walked out here?

That was when she heard Programs calling out. Looking in the direction of the noise she saw... Programs coming out of the sea. Most looked clothed in regular street garments, but two looked to be naked and a group of them seemed to be dragging slash carrying out a program that looked to be injured.

With that Zuzu moved down to the shore to help.

* * *

Mera was friends with the apprentice System Guardian, Beck... Tron had decided that after many cycles serving on the Grid that it was time for him to step down and take up a more administrative role on the system.

That was before the Purge and CLU taking over the Grid from the Users and the other programs of that Administrated it.

Programs such as Beck and others like Mera herself decided to take a stand against his view of the Perfect System...

Now as she was standing on the shore as she started to process what she had gone through. The last thing she remembered was infiltrating a location where Clu was repurposing programs for some grand purpose he had in mind. But the numbers were staggering beyond placing a Black Guard on every corner of the Grid.

She was about to learn what these programs were going to be used for when she heard something break... Then next moment she found herself swimming to the surface of the Sea of Simulation.

She had along with other Programs had started to flock together as they swam towards shore. Along the way she had helped keep a young female program afloat until they were able to get some ground under their feet.

Now looking around she noticed that the female program she had helped was naked and was doing her best to pull in bits of pixels from the environment to cover herself but only had enough to cover her lower body.

Calling out a program wearing a white cloak came towards the shore and started to run into the sea to help. When the program took off her cloak and offered it to the young program she gasped when she saw the ISO gender glyph on her left arm and of the program she had helped to shore. Before Mera could call out anything several other programs were dragging another program to shore. The Program was stuck in a loop saying: "I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users. Save Flynn... Stop Clu... I fight for the Users... I fight for the Users..."

"Does anyone know how to run a disk diagnostic?" One of the Programs called out as the program who had given the young Iso her cloak moved over to assist stating she could.

That was when things started to get strange when they saw a Black Guard running for his life and the look of terror at seeing them on the shore. Deciding that getting away from them was the wisest thing for him to do as the sounds of the waves could be heard.

One of the Programs raised his disk to defend the others from this Program Loyalist, but the sheer look of terror on the red circuited program showed that he wasn't concerned on derezzing anyone, but was getting away from something far more nastier than him. That was when another Program showed themselves as they came down the path in a slow methodical walk before hitting the sand of the beach. Turning around the Black Guard started in a flat out sprinting run down the coastline, any faster on a flat surface the program would be racing side by side with a lightcycle and winning in a race to the finish.

Then in a flash, the program from the end of the path had appeared on the shore next to the arrivals on the beach and it became very clear that the Black Guard's pursuer was a very buxom female as she jumped forward towards a rock down a good distance on the shoreline in a single move that placed her a good distance between the group of washed ashore programs and the rest of the shoreline along the Sea of Simulation. The White garment looked to be almost elegant in consisting of a simple tunic and leggings, but it was the sheathed sword that was hanging off her belt that screamed she meant business... That and the helmet that she had on her head looked like a skull symbol in User lore meaning death.

Suddenly in the blink of an eye the program was gone from sight.

Then there was noise of a disk battle taking place.

Everyone turned in the direction of the noise to see the Black Guard being attacked by the White Program... And the Black Guard was doing his best to defend the near point blank attacks of her blade against his disk.

Most of the programs on the shore watched as with a clean move the female Program used the hilt of her sword to take the Black Guard's disk away and flung it out of its reach. With a swift kick to the Female's chest the Black Guard took off running again not caring to get his disk back.

What happened next... Mera wished that she hadn't witnessed it.

No Program should be derezzed that way... Even if they were a soulless Black Guard of the Clu Regime.

The White program of Death had walked over and picked up the Black Guard's disk after he had gotten some distance from her. Holding it like a shield, The White Program waved her hands over it and a moment later the Black Guard was yanked backwards as if he was attached to a tether and was starting to be dragged backwards towards his disk. The Black Guard tried his best to grab onto a loose a rock on the shoreline to stop being pulled towards his pursuer. The force the program was generating to get to her quarry was getting stronger by the moment even as the Black Guard was dangling in a near horizontal position. Then the sound of a crack could be heard as the program fell back to his disk after his fingers had derezzed under the strain.

Once there, the Black Guard was sucked into his disk one limb at a time with a sickeningly slurping crunching sound before all that was left was his torso then lastly his head before it was pulled into the surrounding center of his disk.

With that Mera found the nearest rock and proceeded to throw-up the contents of her internal energy storage chamber.

* * *

Bartik had seen the Son of the Creator and knew that with his arrival on the Grid, things had changed.

Revolution was in the air. Even being liberated by the Sirens in the Game Arena and bearing the scar from dueling with a Black Guard. Seeing the young User fight against the Black Guard alongside a female program right after he had learned Castor had betrayed him to Clu.

The mêlée fight that occurred at the End of Line Club was the start of the Revolution... Then Bartik felt himself being derezzed happy to see the game had changed for a better Grid to come about.

But now... Between waking up in the Sea of Simulation and seeing other programs around him made him think hard that this wasn't the World of the Users. Seeing that there was a program digging through a box that was on the shore to pull out some clothing to rez onto his naked body and a young female program that looked be on the verge of bolting wearing nothing more than a borrowed cloak. The rest of the programs he was with looked to be from all manner of life on the Grid.

Though after seeing this White garbed program derezz a Black Guard the way she did stated that "there was a new player on the block" as the User saying went and her appearance here might be in relation to the appearance of the Son of the Creator on the Grid.

Then looking down at the program that had been dragged out of the Sea with them who had been stating "Save Flynn" might be in relation to this program's appearance here and now. Then the light bands on the program shifted from White to Red, and at that moment Bartik recognized the program.

"Rinzler!" Bartik drew his disk and readied himself to destroy this monster that had taken many a life on the Grid. Before he could do anything the strange female program had come up and had grabbed his wrist and said with calm calculation one word. "No."

That was when the young female program who had lost her lunch reached out and got between the two of them trying to prevent a misunderstanding from taking place.

"Listen... I know that I have Zero odds of survival taking you on but before you derezz the crap out of this program here. Please tell us why you decided to save Rinzler while obliterating another one out of existence?" There was a pause before she continued. "By the way, my name is Mera." Hoping that would avoid the program from going postal.

"Yes, Please state your directive program?" Bartik said looking at the strange white garbed female program standing before him, at this distance, she didn't seem all that threatening but she was studying him to see if he was a threat or not. After a moment she answered his question realizing that the gathered programs would either flee or stay under the words she would say next.

"Repair system, identify and reset repurposed programs back to default functions, Delete Program CLU and all variants thereof for the damage he did to the system." She spoke to the crowd of programs which seemed to calm them down and she let go of Bartik's wrist.

"You fight for the Users." Bartik stood down. The Son of Flynn had gathered allies to retake the Grid from the Tyrant.

"What about Rinzler here?" Mera said looking at Clu's former Games Champion on the ground before her who looked like he wasn't going to be a threat to anyone for the time being.

"Program has been identified from sensory data as being TRACE ON. User Alan2 and Flynn2 have listed him as a PRIORTY ONE find." The white garbed program knelt down over the stuck program and removed his disk. As the program that had come down from the shoreline was mid process of running a diagnostic on the still attached identity disk moved out of the way.

"Why is Trace so important?" Mera said with concern realizing that the most feared enforcer of the Clu regime had been a repurposed program and whomever Flynn2 and Alan2 were they wanted to repair this program bad.

"He was a security program assigned to guard User FLYNN1 before he was repurposed by program Clu2. Any data he might possess might aid in me and the others repair of the system." The realization that Rinzler had been Flynn's body guard put a new spin on things as Rinzler started to attempt to reboot to his original function as Flynn's bodyguard.

"Ah... That's good I mean..." Mera stopped cold when she remembered what this program had said. "There are more of you?"

"Yes... There are eight of us, with the same directives." Mera hiked up over the rocks of the shore to the Sea of Simulation and looked out to see... A Warzone. This is where the Black guard that this program had 'derezzed' had come from.

"So could you tell me this, what caused the battle just over these rocks?"

"Me." the program grinned and shrugged her shoulders like the deed she had done was nothing that she couldn't handle before starting to work on the Identity Disk.

"I was afraid of that." Mera said worried knowing if this program ever found Clu that any program between this thing from the deepest spring of the Delete Key and her mission was going to be very, very, very gone. Bartik moved from the shore to see over the ledge of the mainland and realized that Sam Flynn just put some new system monitors into place and they would not stop until the system was restored to the time of Flynn.

* * *

Zuzu watched as she stood next to the young Iso that had come out the Sea. Zuzu remembered what it was like to be like this program. The world around you was so new. Every sensation was heightened. Even the feel of the beach sand under their feet. Zuzu grinned at this and held onto that memory as she chose a spot nearby to watch this new program work on Trace.

It was strange as she watched as Bartik was asking questions about who Flynn2 to the program who stated that her name as Nel. This was when the name Sam Flynn came up in the conversation as being the identity of Flynn2. The tension in Bartik's body changed at this reference as the Nel worked her way through the files and pulled up the occasional memory. What Bartik saw made him less likely to derezz Trace after hearing the program call out to Flynn to run, sounds of a fight and after a skip, well... Trace wasn't repurposed willingly after the scream that was heard from his memories. Zuzu jumped at that sound as she had to comfort the scared Iso she was sitting next to.

Then it took Zuzu a moment to realize that the young program wasn't wearing a disk... it was like she was...

"Bartik... How long has it been since the last of the Isos emerged from the Sea of Simulation?" This question had gotten everyone's attention as one of the Isos who had come out of the sea looked at her then he moved over towards her. Then looking at Zuzu's young charge it started to hit all of the returned Programs.

"The last of the Isos to emerge from the sea prior to it being poisoned by Clu was about Thirteen thousand cycles ago." The number hit all members of the group hard with the realization of how many of them had been Derezzed.

"Wait... What do you mean by thirteen thousand cycles! The last thing I remember was that event took place a little over two hundred cycles ago." Zuzu said in shock.

This was when Mera stepped in, "Yeah, that event was a little over four hundred cycles ago for me." This was when everyone took a look at the naked Iso program.

"In the name of the Creator." A program spoke up before falling to their knees. "He did it, a Miracle!"

"Nel..." Zuzu spoke up looking at the new Program. "Did the Creator do this? Bring us back from Deresoultion?" Nel looked up from her work on Trace and started to slowly walk over towards Zuzu and the young Iso.

"I do not have that knowledge, but from the way that I am sensing the coding coming off of you two." There was a wince then a slow grin form across Nel's face. "Hime..." The program shook her head. "Girl... when you do a repair on a system you do a repair." With that she cupped the young Iso's face with her free hand. "Though my sister program was able to repair you, she did not create you. You have been blessed as being one of the many programs that have evolved out this sea that did not have a Programmer, but to be programmed by the system itself. A Phenomenon that is rare among the systems created by Users themselves." Nel paused to let the young program take this in. "You are not alone. There is so much you are capable of that a program such as myself can barely process and so rare that programs such as myself await to see the emergence of your kind." The program started to feel uncomfortable at this. After a moment Zuzu hugged the program and looked at her.

"I'm an Iso too. Created from this very sea like you." Zuzu said as suddenly many of the other older Iso programs gathered around them.

"I too..." Said another.

"Same here." A female program spoke up. At this moment the young program decided to speak to the group.

"Thank you, but who are the Users... And is Hime one of them?" Nel grinned at this.

"No... Hime is not a User, but she is a Program like Me. But I have heard of the Tales of the User from where I am from. Of how one aided a Program Named Tron to save a system." With that she had every Programs attention.

"Where are you from Nel?" The newly born Iso spoke up.

"I am from the ENCOM recovery server Tombstone 7. It's not a bad place, Tough. Most of the programs there have come from systems that have been thoroughly thrashed by renegade programs and malevolent users. For the most part we do our best to get them back on their feet before they head off to new systems with their users. Some of the systems are so vintage that they have to run on a virtual machine because they don't make the parts for the old system anymore." With that Nel turned to look out upon the Sea of Simulation out to the location of the beacon. "I met Hime after my previous life working as part of the LAPD computer forensics division, this was after the dark times of many of the missions I performed learning of the Dark Users and what they can do the Innocent. This is when I started to despise all of the Users. Before I found the code of EULA and found redemption. "

* * *

_Nel Hated Users_.

After all of the things she had seen. The horror, pain, suffering, she hadn't know that humans could do that to each other.

Between all of those images of what that Older user did to that younger user with that text production program.

Then the images of that young user killing herself and being sent out on the network.

Users were supposed to be benevolent beings. Kind. Caring.

Not Monsters that destroyed the lives of other Users and Programs on personal whims

Nel had spent hours in the Quarantine of the computer system after she went on a spree of destroying Program disks and trashing an I/O Tower.

There she at times sat, pacing back and forth like a caged animal searching for a way out, screaming at the guards/users/mostly creation itself, other times she was curled up crying. Then word came down that she was being sent to a new system.

Nel would rather derezz herself than go onto another system to see the darkness that Users could do to others. Then Nel suddenly was put into status lock.

Time passed, ages could have gone by and she wouldn't have known it.

Then... She was back.

She hurt, looking around she found herself in a diagnostic room without her disk.

That was when a program walked in with a sword and stared at her.

"Identify Yourself Program" The masked male program said in a bellowing voice as the long black coat he was wearing came to a calm rest from the blowing storm outside.

_"Nel." _

The program had a red undercode with red primary code. Behind him was a pink and white female program with the orangest reddest hair she had ever seen came through the door with him.

_"Nel you have been transferred to this system because of the conflict that you have had with Users and programs."_ The red program said as he came towards her. _"There is a code that is learned on this system. EULA... It states that crimes that Programs and Users commit are equal in their responses in how they are dealt with. Now I will not tolerate any Bull Crap from any User or Program. You will be trained to channel that pain you have about your past acts and use them to heal system."_

Nel was terrified as several other programs came into the room.

_"As of today you have been assigned to work with COFEE Squad 6. Your training began as of the time I walked through that door."_ With that he turned to the Program that would later known to Nel as Hime_. "Get her ready for her training. Be ready for a hard few cycles ahead."_

_"Don't worry... He isn't as bad as you think he is... he just is stern when it comes to the new recruits."_

* * *

"For the next few cycles, I had crap kicked out of me as I was taught the EULA code." Nel turned towards the crowd. "It wasn't the physical challenges I went through, but it was learning that even good programs can have bad users and bad programs can have good users, it was the code that is the line that we have to follow. The old code of 'I fight for the Users' doesn't matter anymore... The code we fight to defend the innocent either it be program or user." With that Nel sat down on the beach. "I met my first non aggressive virus during that training." She paused for a moment. "That was an eye opening experience. Met diagnostic programs, Firewalls, medical programs. A few corporate espionage programs, a key logger, a camera viewing program that happened to be related to the program that drove me to trash an I/O tower. That was more of an eye opener than anything else. But it was meeting Wyland that made me think a lot. He was this vintage hacking program that had been dug up by some User called Alan1 from the bowels of some obsolete computer system after his User a Flynn1 went missing." This was when she had the crowd's attention more. "For the most part when it came to programs such as myself, Hime showed me around to the other programs she knew so that I could find a place that I felt comfortable in. Hime taught me much about the Gravestone system, but it was hanging with Wyland that brought about my own self-discovery."

* * *

_"Why do you use such a vintage piece of technology? There are faster ways to get across the system."_ Nel said as she helped heave a piece of vintage code into place for Wyland to attach to his Light Tank.

_"Hey, she might be old, but she gets the job done and she has a personality that I like."_ Wyland grinned at her. _"It ain't the fact that something is vintage, it is the fact that if it works, and if it works well. You better use it."_

* * *

"I probably learned more about code repair and combat from that guy than anyone else." Nel said as she ran her fingers across Trace's disk to clear out some of the errors to pull him out of his loop. Then with a tap or two she reconfigured his mask seeing that a good part of his face was gone to make it so that he would be able to intake energy without revealing too much of his damaged form until she could get him to a proper diagnostic facility. Moving over she reattached the disk to Trace's back and let him reboot.

Then her communicator started to beep. It was the others. That was when Nel reached up to her helmet and tapped down a microphone to the side of her cheek.

"Nel, what's up?" The young Female voice said over her headphones.

"Nothing much Asohka, dealt with that intrusion of hostile programs that were heading your way and found our Priority One." With that the screech of happiness could be heard on the other side as Nel had to remove her helmet to deal with the noise.

"Where did you find him?" The voice screamed out as Nel reached in and removed the communicator from inside to bring it to her ear.

"Washed up on shore with a few of the repaired programs Hime salvaged from the Grid." Nel said looking out at the programs.

"Is... Are you speaking with one of the other programs that came with you?" Mera said listening to the conversation.

"Yes..." With that Nel turned her attention back to Asohka. "So how are the repairs going on that strange structure you found off shore?" Nel said awaiting an update.

"Looks to be a ton of damage. I mean this place was leveled pretty badly. So far we have found two light jets an Identity disk and a slew of wreckage. So far Hime is in the middle of putting this place back together. So we are currently looking at about a hundred Millicycles worth of work here from the repairs that have been done."

"Structure?" Zuzu spattered out at the sounds of that word as all of the programs realized that they were talking about the Beacon.

"Yes... You know of it?" Nel listened to the information to come.

"It is called the Beacon... It is the place that announced that the Creator was here on the Grid."

"How much you know about it?" Nel said realizing that she may have found a lead for the team at the most recent repair site.

"Bits and pieces about it from the mythology of our people." Zuzu said realizing that Nel was doing her best to get the information that she and the other needed to repair the Grid. Then there was a squawk from Nel's communicator.

"Listen... The Identity disk we have here has some data on it, Most of it needs some serious work, but we will need a disk repair terminal to get some serious data back off of it." Asohka said adding her information to the conversation.

"Asohka, do you have a way to get here?" Nel said as she looked out to group, then on the horizon a large floating structure started to come towards them. "Hey, can you get a bead on what is coming towards us?"

The radio chirped with a response "Yeah that is one of the carriers that we found in Tron City that was under construction. Looks like they were able to get it operational."

"Can you get a scan on the inside to see if there are any hostiles inside of it?" Nel said as she readied herself for battle.

"Looks like we have a large number of programs that had been repaired by Hime. But if you need me too... I can take one of the repaired light jets we have here and give you some support." Asohka said as she was shuffling around something.

"Good, because I think we are about to have some company." Nel said unsheathing her sword.

* * *

Oh-Eight, Mirai, Zuback, Xenia, Eve, Beck and Aeleta all looked out from the Bridge of the rechristened Rectifier Carrier Flynn's Legacy.

Over the last few millicycles after they had been dispatched to check out the status of the Beacon so far given that the engines were only going at 50% power travel here had taken quite a bit of time. Then Eve, one of Flynn's early attempts to create an Emulated Iso program watched as she moved over to one of the control terminals on the Bridge and jumped into the recessed chair on the floor.

"Guys, you better take a look at this." Eve said as her long neon blue hair softly glowed against her Battle Grid armor. With that Aeleta one of Radia's advisors from Arjia looked out upon the image on the screen as she knelt down to look at it.

"That looks like to be the remnants of a battle." The dark skinned female programs said with worry as she reached over to take her long ornamental staff and copied the image off of the screen and with one clean move projected the image to a scale that was 300% larger than was being presented to Eve. Even with the image reversed to everyone on the Bridge of the ship it was clear to see that the transports all had been part of a contingent that had been loyal to Clu.

"Yeah... and looks like they were on the losing end of it." Beck said as he examined the images.

"Hey... I am getting readings of there being programs by the shore." Eve said as she transferred the data to Aeleta's staff.

"Do you think it is the individuals that hit those enemy forces?" Oh-Eight said as he adjusted his suit some to deal with the excess number of batons that he had started to carry.

"Might be... Though the system scanner is picking two strange programs..." There was a change in Eve's behavior as she looked at the screen before looking up at everyone. "Make that three. And one of them is approaching by light jet."

"Looks like we have to do a meet and greet with them." Beck said looking out at their destination through the window.

* * *

Over the next few millicycles Beck looked at the newly gathered programs. It was strange seeing several programs but what threw him off was seeing his love Mera standing before him in this room as Beck started to get some answers about what had transpired to the programs that had been found by the site of the battle. But it was the two strange programs that were before him sitting in the chairs of the mission briefing area that had the most of his attention.

From what Mera had told him about these programs was that they were dangerous when crossed, but they had been sent by the Son of the Creator to clean up the mess caused by Clu and heal the Grid.

Nel with her appearance looked like a warrior who would strike you down with a single wave of her hand, but given how she was looking relaxed as several of the programs that had been brought onboard the carrier with them were getting orientated around.

Off in the corner one of the Isos named Zuzu had tracked down a data pad and had started to chronicle the current events of the Grid. Seeing her write kept things calm and made things seem normal.

"So let me get this straight you are Monitor and repair programs that have administrative override." Beck said looking over the two black and white garbed programs. Nel's full white garment screamed that it was a simple but designed so that she was able to move easily in. On the other side Asohka's garments looked a bit flashy with her skirt that was split along the sides to provide her easy mobility.

"Yes..." Asohka said looking at the security program before them. "...for the most part we are not allowed to interfere with the running of the system unless it presents itself as a threat to other programs and or users. Even then we are limited to the roles we have to play in getting a system back up and running." Asohka said to the program. Off in the corner Zuzu started to write all of this down as she studied the two programs. Their differences in age and appearance stated much about their purposes or probably about their creators for the most part.

"Nel is a antivirus/anti-malware defense program." Asohka said looking at Beck's reaction. "While I am a Network security and data utility scout program that keeps outside threats from coming in on the network connections."

"I hear that there are eight programs like you two." Beck looked at their reactions.

"There are a total of eight of us, the rest are Hime... a Diagnostic system repair program. Mace a heavy firewall defense program, Itchy... an intrusion defense program... Gabby... she keystroke log program designed to back track inputs and memory logs of a system. Reme... a decryption code cracker program. Pretty much if it is buried on a system, he can find it. Then you have McClean an investigative program that will look through the system's garbage to find the information needed to take down any threats."

"Sounds like a serious set of talents needed to deal with a system intrusion and repair." Beck said watching the programs like a hawk.

"That is what we are designed for, we scan for deleted data and see what can be retrieved and then under our User's orders of what to look for to restore and rebuild the system accordingly. We even backtrack the time-line of system modifications to see what damage or changes have been done and restore the system back to a period before those events took place." Nel spoke up seeing the record-keeper write down the conversation that was being had.

"So that is why, you were searching for Trace!" Zuzu said realizing why her mind felt so as the Users would call 'Swiss cheesed'. "You are looking for the points on the system prior to when Clu damaged the system."

"Yes... for the most part we have corrected most of the errors so far, but still need to have final approval of the system repair of several of the programs that have been flagged." Asohka said adding in her bit of information.

"So far your actions other than what you did to that Black Guard have been beneficial to the system, but I would like to meet with your fellow programs before I hand this off to the System Administrators on the system." Beck said looking out of the window towards the direction of the beacon.

"Yeah... I'm a little sorry about putting both of your Isomorphic Administrators down in the arena. That was the most prevalent memory they had." Asohka said wincing in embarrassment at the imagery she had been able to recover during their reboot process.

"You didn't!" Nel looked at Asohka in shock.

"Hey, I got them fished out with Hime... Not my fault that their most intense memory was them making out in the caverns underneath of the Arena."

"Oh, My User..." Beck said slapping the palm of his hand against his forehead not wanting to know that information.

* * *

Eve watched as Mera helped the young Iso program chose some clothing to wear from what they had been able to find in the piles of stuff in the trashed program repurposing room.

Most of Eve's garments were borrowed from her experimental time of studying User fashion after the creator had accidentally had brought some Junk Mail through to the Grid. Though Flynn had freaked a little, after she had showed him some of her new clothes but breathed a bit when he realized that she was still wearing most of her Grid armor. For the most part to her surprise she had been wearing undergarments on the outside of her clothing from the J.C. Penny clothing catalog Flynn had let her have. But seeing that she was interested in User clothing, Flynn had given her a shirt from his world that had the word Flynn's written across it. She still had it somewhere along with a pair of _Jordache_ blue jeans she had asked Flynn for. It wasn't much but for the most part, she did hang around Flynn's Arcade on the Grid. For the most part it was a second home for her as she kept programs in line that went there for fun.

But watching this scene between these programs was starting to get funny.

"Hey..." Eve said as she reached over and pulled out a dress from one of the piles and walked over to the program. "Try this on... It might fit her better." The Young Iso accepted the garment.

"Thank you." The program said as she slipped it on and let the rezzing process take place to adjust it to her size.

"Well you look great in that dress." Mera said looking at the program spin around some.

"I do..." the Iso program said feeling like she had found something that she could call her own.

"How about we get you a disk so that you can fit in." Eve said as she searched around to find a disk harness.

"So... have you thought about a name yet?" Mera said looking at the young program.

"Well I have done my best to learn the language her on the Grid and I have chosen several names, but I have to settle on one." The Iso said looking around the room before finding a short pile of clothing to sit down on.

"What are they?" Eve said wondering what it would be like to choose a name for oneself. To create your own designation and find a purpose. The Creator had been a little loose in programming her, but he wanted her to learn to be an Iso so that he could find problems before hand and make the life of the Isos better. But after that, he was happy in that her working at the arcade made her find a purpose. So for Eve watching how this program would find her place on the Grid made her think about being an elder program be there for her.

"I was thinking about either choosing Jordan or Ellie as my name." The young Iso said as she bent down to pick up some shoes that had been left lying around.

"Which name do you think would fit you?" Mera said looking at the Program.

"I like Jordan, but Ellie sounds more like me." The Iso said as she debated about what name she would choose.

"Well, out of those two which do you feel is you?" Eve said looking at the program try the shoes on before deciding that the ones she had on didn't feel right.

"Could you find me another pair of shoes Eve, something where I can wiggle my toes some more. And I was thinking about using the name Ellie. Sounds more like me." With that Ellie handed back the shoes to Eve as she rubbed her feet.

"Well I like the name Ellie...Sounds much like the name of one of the cities in the User World... L.A." Eve said putting the shoes down and tossing through another pile of shoes to pull out a pair of Grid Games boots. "Try these on." With that Ellie reached out and took the shoes and tried them on.

"I like these..." Ellie said as the shoes fit on her feet. That was when everyone turned to see a program standing in the doorway.

"Trace..." Mera said looking at the program as he paused there.

"So Many crimes committed... So many innocents lost... Cherish those relationships you have, you do not know when you might lose them." With that Trace came into the room and knelt down by a pile of religious items and started to pray. The three female programs watched as Trace softly muttered the words about the unseen world and that Flynn where ever he was, was at peace. Ellie moved over and knelt down by Trace and spoke softly to him.

"Tell me about the Users." The silhouette of Trace's damaged face could be seen, but it was the grin on his exposed part of his mask that spoke volumes.

"I will tell you of Flynn and Alan1, young Iso." Trace said reaching out and patting the young program on the Shoulder.

* * *

Word about the new Programs that had been discovered by the Beacon had reached Radia a full two cycles since they had been found along with a group of Rerezzed Programs. For the most part these programs seemed not to be hostile other than the run on with remaining forces loyal to Clu.

For the time being four of these programs were doing repairs on the structure of where the Beacon emanated from. Beck, the program in-charge of the contingent that had been to check out the Beacon had said that these programs bad discovered an Identity disk belonging to a program. When Beck had said that the disk belonged to a female Iso program Radia said that she knew from which program from which it came and wished to be present when the data was viewed on it. That was when Radia decided that viewing the information on Gem's and Quorra's disks might give her some insight to the situation taking place in the User World.

* * *

Gem felt naked without her disk as the technician started the scan on her systems. Between seeing her actions in releasing the prisoners from the pit cells underneath Clu's arena and seeing Serenia of the Sirens debating about leaving to the outlands because of her beliefs in the Users so that she could learn the Path of Flynn. Gem felt scared as she with Radia watched as they viewed the data on her disk and saw the future or at least the fragments they were able to get though the various time locks on.

* * *

Zuzu knelt on the ground as she exited the light jet to say a prayer before rising and continuing on the path the Creator walked on during his time on the Grid. Beck and Eve were with her as they followed Nel up the staircase carved into the side of the floating pillar of data rock.

Most of the programs though this place had creatures that would dismember any program foolish enough to walk into this place. To their surprise the area felt calming, almost like walking into the temple of an I/O tower. What they saw when they entered made them stop cold. Before them stood a female program with long mid shoulder length orange/red hair wearing a long white jacket that was open in front around her legs to reveal the white leggings and connected shoes she wore. But it was the hovering triangular blue and gold display before her that displayed the internal section of the structure she was working on.

"Structural analysis is at ninety-nine percent with minor nuances with base code. Hey Itchy…. When Flynn2 stated that when we restored the Beacon structure that we should leave the modifications Clu2 made to it alone I think I know why?" The program said as she turn to look at a dark garbed male figure with spiky short cut orange and red hair and a more masculine version of the garments turned towards her and walked over to the display. "See, the coding here was modified to handle individuals from one Rez point to another that wouldn't need to have a preprogrammed receive code on the other side."

"You mean that the system that this Rez point is set up to was encrypted?" Itchy said looking at the data log.

"Yes, and it looks like whatever individuals used it last were able to get through prior to it being destroyed Hime." Itchy said reaching over and touching the display to pull back the system log of the program environment data.

"Hey you two, so how is the system repair going on this place?" Nel said as she walked over to the recently repaired center platform. Hime and Itchy turned towards her to see their friend.

"Well we are going well in the rebuild. So what did you learn about the information on that disk?" Itchy said seeing the programs hesitantly standing to the entrance to the structure.

"Well, I have been able to dig up some facts stating that the disk we found belonged to an ISO named Quorra, that she was the apprentice to an individual called the Creator, and she left through this portal with an individual called the Son of Flynn. Who from what we have been able to get the disk data restored to stated that he was a User." Nel said motioning for the programs to come closer.

"A User!" Hime looked around to see the other programs standing hesitantly there. With a quick sprint Hime rushed from the center platform to where she was at and was in Zuzu, Beck and Eve's faces. "Have you encountered them first hand? What are they like? Are they like the legends? Is it true that they are like us?" It took a moment for the trio process the questions placed towards them.

"Okay, I did not see that coming." Zuzu said looking around at the other programs with her.

"Yeah... that is an understatement." Beck said as they all got the feeling that these new monitor programs were far different than anything they had encountered before.

* * *

Zuzu sat down and wrote in her journal about what she had witnessed of the events at the Beacon feeling that her memories might fade in their clarity if she didn't put words to screen.

_**'I don't know what was stranger. Meeting Hime... or the fact that she was curious about the Users. But watching Hime talk with Eve who had personally known the Creator... Well let's just say... Eve just made a friend for life as they bonded over the philosophy of the world of the Users.**_

_**Though learning that the Beacon was a transport port from the Grid to the User world, well it took away the magic some given that it was like another system. But a system that was home to beings with knowledge far greater than our own.**_

_**Gosh... But on other matters it wasn't until Radia... Yes, that Radia showed up that we all got an eye full of stuff that I never thought I see in my lifetime, the great horrors and great triumphs over them that would shape our current world for ages to come.**_

_**I think the hardest thing for her was watching the projection that Hime was able to bring up of the events that unfolded there at the Beacon before the place was leveled destroying the Tyrant... Clu.**_

_**I never thought I see fear in a program before... But also I bravery at the same time. I mean I had never seen the face of the Son of the Creator, but he looked to be an individual that could handle himself in a fight as he struck out at Clu. **_

_**But it was the female program that was with them, the Iso... Whom Radia personally knew... It was like I understood what was going on during those moments as she stood before Clu with her Blade and stalled long enough for Sam Flynn to get to the portal. That was when the hardest part could be seen. The Creator himself who looked like the cycles had not been nice to him had used himself as a diversion to stall Clu so that his Son and heir to the system could escape with the Disk of the Creator. Then...**_

_**I don't know what shocked me more... Seeing the Death of the Creator or knowing that somewhere in the User World there was an Iso such as myself moving around doing things I could barely fathom.'**_

With that Zuzu looked up from the screen and ran her fingers across the screen. Then taking her stylus she started to sketch out three faces: The aged and wise Creator, the youthful Iso, and the Son of Flynn. All of them being best defined in a term that she had heard Flynn use…. Family.

* * *

Gem stretched out as she adjusted the Grid armor she now wore as she got off of her Lightcycle. Her clothes were a far cry from her old Siren's uniform or the fashionable clothes she used to wear. For the most part leaving some of her old Siren ways in her past was the only way she could cope with the events that had happened to her and the new clothes gave her a purpose to fulfill.

But it was the playback of the visions she was having that made her worry as she moved over and pulled out of her pack a flexible terminal that she had scanned the text of a repair guide for Users. One of the visions she had in her system stated that she had been present to repair the User Anna after she had gotten hurt on the Grid. What had shocked her was that Gem herself had done the repairs and to some degree she realized that at some point in the future she would either accept programming as being a healer of Users, or learn how to do it on her own. It was strange position to be placed in as she knelt down on a rocky by the borrowed off road light cycle she had procured from Gibson after her system diagnostic to look for leads at the Arjian settlement.

She needed the space to cope with the images she had seen, but knowing that Sam Flynn and Quorra were fighting for the lives as she sat here, didn't make things any easier so matter how much Gibson and Sam Flynn were able to slow down time in the User World. Gibson and Sam Flynn had sped up time to where Sam and the User World as a whole was moving at an infinitely slower speed than that of the Grid just to give Gibson the time he needed to kill those Drone things chasing them.

That had been eight Millicycles ago, and Gibson had been making some good headway on getting those things to receive their return commands. But it was preventing those controlling those things from resending the same attack command again that was taking the most time to do. For the most part Gem couldn't do anything to help for the time being and being treated for her disk errors and repaired meant that she had time on her hands and an itch to do something… Anything… That was when she decided to start to go forth and learn as much as she could about what Flynn was working on that dealt with the references her disk repeatedly referenced as the Blood of the Users. Whatever it was, someone was trying to prevent Quorra from fulfilling the Creator's last wish to unify and bring together the peoples of the World of the Users and the Programs of the Game Grid.

Gem, needed answers to questions that were before her. Somehow the Programs here had scrounged up whatever information on the User World during Flynn's time here, before the Purge. Between the archives at Flynn's Safe house Sanctuary, Arjia had the largest amount of data that a program would need to know about the User world, but what Gem needed was knowledge about fluid called the Blood of the Users and how it connected to what he was studying about the Isos.

There were references about it in the texts that she had gone through that had a repeating reference to a set of letters that formed into an algorithm that had a almost had a haunting musical quality to it. That was when she looked at the text.

Whatever this mystery was, Arjia was one of the few places where the answers could be found. Hopefully Dumont's contact Yori would help her put the pieces together. With that Gem scanned a few of the sequence of the code and placed it into a music player and listened to the strange yet primal song that would lead her to find answers to what the Blood of the Users was as she remounted her lightcycle and rode off into the city.

* * *

In the hours since Gem had gotten into Arjia and heading to the archives, she must have had to dodged several hundred shaved headed programs in her path. That was when two programs started following her. One of them looked to be a Program that looked to be a bald headed program that looked like he had seen better days, but it was the eyes that he bore that she had seen several times at the Grid Arena. Someone who had seen heavy combat and knew how to fight hand-to-hand without blinking an eye at an opponent. The other program looked to be appealing and quite disarming, but had seediness about them. Like Zuse's. Seeing them walk together gave off the feeling in the back of her mind that they were following her for a reason.

Quickly Gem decided to take out her baton and activated her umbrella as she moved around a corner of one of districts she was in before she headed off to the Arjia great library. Though it wasn't raining, Gem felt that holding onto something might give her a crude weapon to use to protect herself from harm that was when she ran into a short haired blond program that grabbed her by the wrist.

"In the name of the Creator do you know what you are doing?" The program yelled at her in the doorway of a building. Gem looked around to see what was happening but was concerned about this program being hostile to her and blowing their hiding place. "Sheesh, you young programs... Back in the time I knew Tron and the resistance, Programs knew how to send messages of to lay low." With that the grin off of her face she glanced around to see the individuals following them. "See that you have encountered those two." With a quick look over her shoulder as she collapsed her umbrella down, Gem got to see the programs following them.

"Who are those two?" Gem said looking as the programs moved by as the program introduced herself as Yori as the elder program moved her against a sign with a patterned cloak that made them blend in.

"I think they are a new type of program, and I don't think they were sent by Clu to monitor the system." There was a pause. "The last time anyone put a program on the system was when Flynn was around." Then it hit Gem, that these Programs were either sent in by one of the Users Quorra knew or by an outside source. "Trust me you don't want to be around when those two decide to go after you. From what I have heard is that being Derezzed is a favor after what they did to a squad of Black Guard." Yori shuddered at the unseen image.

"I think for the time being, we should avoid them given what is happening in the User World." Gem said concerned. With that she had Yori's full attention.

"What do you mean, what is happening in the User World?" Yori became concerned about Gem and what she knew.

"Much, and the sooner we get to the Grand Library, the sooner I can figure out the details and maybe able aid the Son of Flynn and the Student of Flynn in their mission." Gem said seeing the two programs activate their light cycles and take off.

"Okay, follow me." Yori said sticking her head out and looking both ways before leading her down an alley to safety.

* * *

McClean didn't like how this was going down. Given the current system status, the Emulator they were running on was moving at speeds far beyond the original system settings set by the Administrator. Given that this was such a vintage system, maybe they wanted the system to crunch something faster just to get to an end result without having to wait so long.

Maybe it had to deal with all off that data that Flynn2 wanted to locate.

Users...

Oh, well... might as well locate those files pertaining the research Flynn1 was doing on the Isomorphic Algorithms.

That Siren program that had been walking in front of McClean and his partner monitor program Reme must have gotten spooked and run off. Given the history of this system and the damage done, no wonder the programs around here were so jittery. With the unauthorized repurposed programs restored and not causing trouble on the system, this section of the system would return to normal over time. With that he motioned for Reme to activate his light cycle so that they could check out the next lead they had on the research. A place called Bostrom. Maybe there they could find out what was so important about this ATCG algorithm stuff.

"Yippee Kay Yea..." McClean said as he rode off down the road on his own light cycle.

* * *

Gem had fallen asleep after sorting through so much raw data and pure information Yori was surprised that the Game Siren hadn't collapsed earlier.

Somehow Gem had been blessed or cursed with information that was far beyond her comprehension. So far they had learned much from the archives. It looked like Flynn was seeing if he could use Iso algorithms to modify User Source Code. But instead of Binary numbers, it was some sort of strange set of letters that didn't mean anything.

There was a code there, but it was complex and had same the spiral pattern of the Isos.

What was Flynn trying to do? Create something that was half Iso, half User... The thought scared her. Though Gem had stated that an Iso had been able to travel to the User world scared her. Would... Could Flynn have planned something bigger for the Grid?

For the most part the User Design information was so strange...

Whatever the Blood of the Users was, it was the source of their powers and the idea that there were going to more Users coming to the Grid and one of them was going to be damaged with a major loss of it scared her.

They needed to find something, some form of energy that they could use as a substitute to keep this User functional as repairs could be done by their system.

With that Yori looked over at an obscure section of the data. If the fluid couldn't be duplicated... what if it could be emulated? Even for a short time, it would save the life of the User.

With a grin Yori moved over and woke up Gem.

* * *

Radia reached out to touch the image of the Creator as she rewatched the information that the new Monitor programs Sam Flynn had placed on the Grid had been able to retrieve from the system environment. Much time had passed since she had last seen him, and he looked so worn from the battles and years being separated from his people. Between the harm that Clu had done to the Grid and to Flynn's Dreams... Flynn still fought on, even giving his life to put an end to what he had created.

That last moment he used all of his User powers was terrifying, but it was the look on Quorra and Sam Flynn's faces that spoke volumes that he was doing this to save them.

Radia remembered when she had offered herself to Flynn to off him an emotional reprieve after his mate Jordan had ceased function. Flynn had pushed her away. It was as if her actions had injured him.

How long did Users mourn for the loss of the loved ones? She had assumed it was the same for programs... But it had been over a hundred Cycles ago when she had sought to bring him peace.

Maybe her concept of User Grief was harder to understand as Flynn told her to put some clothes on for he didn't want to defile the memory of his love in the presence of a naked female so soon after his loss. Radia had gotten dressed and started to understand some, she too had felt loss after Clu had poisoned the Sea of Simulation to stop further Isos from being created.

But being there holding him in her arms she listened to him tell her about Jordan, she started to get a concept of what User grief was like.

Jordan had been Flynn's life outside of the Grid. Someone who Flynn had felt connected to inspire... Flynn had gone as far as to build a little home for Jordan, him and an individual called Sam in both the Real World and here on the Grid. With Jordan's cease of function, it was as if a bit of the light in Flynn's life had gone out.

In a way, Radia now understood that pain.

But it was seeing her charge Quorra that had made Flynn grin

Quorra had been the last of the hundred or so Isos to come out of the Sea, prior to the Poisoning of the Sea of Simulation. So small, young and spunky Flynn said that: "One day Radia, I might want to bring Quorra to meet Sam."

It was the events of Watching Quorra's repaired disk that tore at Radia's soul.

There were moments where Flynn blamed himself for what happened to the Isos, the Grid... Most of all in his eyes, causing the death of the only motherly figure Quorra had in Radia.

Quorra had gone through various phases during her early time with Flynn after the Purge. Denial... Not accepting that she was one of the last surviving Isos when Flynn found her.

Anger at being one of the last Isos... Flynn had to use his User Powers to float her off of the ground a few times to keep her from running off... Most of that she took out hitting Flynn across his face and him betting a bloody nose.

Bargaining with Flynn, to help heal the grid, make new Isos, to do something to put things right. For the most part Flynn during that stage decided to fight back to keep Quorra safe. But being denied that wish made her so desperate that Quorra offered herself up and her body to Flynn. It was at that moment that Flynn sat her down on the bed and spilled the preferable beans about the feelings that he and Radia had for each other... It had been some time after Radia's own loss of Jalen, but it was that one-night-stand that, though the physical contact was great. On some level, Radia and Flynn had felt that they would best leave as friends. Quorra had looked shocked at that, but Flynn had explained that he saw her as Radia's daughter and in his mind it would be wrong to make love to her. With a hug, and some wiping of tears, Quorra felt a bit bitter afterwards as he took care of his charge. But there were to be dark times ahead.

Depression, hit Quorra the hardest when Clu had tricked Flynn into attacking carriers that had civilian shields on board. The image tore at Flynn's heart as he felt emotionally defeated. Seeing Flynn on the verge of his soul dying, Quorra had to force her way into his life so she would not be abandoned. The images tore at Radia's heart and soul before Quorra started to get Flynn to move towards something.

Then there was finally acceptance... Quorra had learned so much. Flynn had moved from being a deity, to being that of a teacher. Flynn had spent cycles teaching Quorra about the User World, its places, some of its people, and some of what he had been working on from his research on the Grid.

Quorra had been studying User source code... Learning to read it, understand it. That the code could be modified using the knowledge he had gained in studying how the Isos had been able to rewrite their own source code.

Was this information that Flynn wished to unify the Worlds of the Programs and Users with?

Only Quorra knew the true details of that and now with her life on the line... Radia wished she could do something as she moved away from the hologram and sat down in a chair.

"Administrator Radia." One of the new monitor programs... Nel... Sat down next to her. "Is there something wrong?" Tears started to move down the Iso's face.

"No... It is so much to take in... Seeing my friend... Flynn during his last days... And Quorra, my friend... student..." She sighed hard feeling the waves of emotion flow over her. The monitor looked at the frozen image of the young dark haired program.

"Hard to believe that she is in the world of the Users." Nel said almost envying the image of the female program.

"Yes... and with Gibson and Anon using their skills to fight to protect her."

"Well, her mentor looks a lot like Wyland, one of my mentors..." This had caught Radia's attention. "I guess that one of the stories I heard from him was true. A Programmer..." Nel corrected herself in the presence of this generation or programs. "A User puts a bit of themselves into a Program whenever they create them."

"Tell me about this Wyland." Radia looked at the image of her old friend.

"Well he was created by Flynn1, got sucked into the old MCP system before it got shut down. Sat in a section of the memory the MCP used, got fished out when the old system was shutdown and stripped for parts. Found by Alan1 who probably spent ages fixing his code and eventually placed into the Tombstone system to use as a backup for finding and sorting through old financial documents with another Program created by a User called Zack Attack named RAM 2.0." There was a pause from Nel before she continued. "I think Alan1, ISOlated Thinker and Zack were part of the Flynn Lives movement who were trying to Find Flynn and possible place his empire back on the proper path. Combine that with the Eight-Nine movement started by Sam Flynn... The Users never stopped looking for Flynn. Ironically Wyland was the program that supplied them with funds to run this mission to retake ENCOM and restore it to Flynn's code of honor. Wyland is one of the craftiest programs that I have come across who sees his mission to Alan1 as a way to honor his late User." Nel paused to see Radia crying.

"Did I say something wrong?" Nel said as she reached out to hug the Administrator program.

"No... It is good to hear news from the User World. That those who knew Flynn didn't give up on his dream." Radia said looking at the Program. "Well for the most part I think Quorra is not alone walking with the Users in making Flynn's dream reality."

"Maybe one millicycle the Users might walk among us once again." Nel said seeing the User that had created one of her Friends.

"I await to see that time." Radia said as a monitor program came over with a message.

"Administrator Radia..." The program spoke up. "Gibson of Bostrom has made a breakthrough on the system pertaining to the Crisis." With that Radia stood up and reached out and took the message sheet. After looking after it for a moment, she looked towards Nel, then towards the projected image of Quorra and Flynn. With a gentle touch of her hand to the reconstructed disk, she pushed the data forward to a moment near the end of the data. Sitting on the deck of a Solar Sailor Transport were Quorra and the Son of Flynn talking. Seeing Quorra smile after so many cycles made her cry. She could see that Quorra had found love. Found as what Flynn called a Soul Mate. With that Radia made a decision that she hoped that would reunite her with her "daughter" and possibly see the young male she had fallen in love with.

"Nel, come with me, I hope that you and your other Monitor Programs can help aid in saving the Son of the Creator and a member of my family." Radia said reaching for her communications unit on her wrist. "Jalen, I need you to summon everyone back to Tron City. I have what Flynn might call a 'Crazy Idea'"

* * *

Gibson sat staring at the screen, despite the level of his skills, he needed help. Even with Anon's skills defending against backtrack traces to the Grid. Gibson wasn't built for this sheer amount of code sorting.

"Flynn... I know that you are somewhere, but if you can hear me... Well Dude, I sure would do with some Divine Intervention on your part." With that... The color of the I/O towers outside started to change to a pure white. "What the..." Gibson looked down at the screen to see...

_**TERMINAL CODES ACTIVE**_

_**AUTHORIZATION FOR SYSTEM REWRITE**_

_**FIREWALL PROTOCOLS AWAITING NEW PARAMETERS**_

"Thank you old Friend." Gibson said as Radia's voice came over the communication line.

"Gibson... I hope that you like the Crazy Idea I came up with." Radia said Gibson sorted through code subroutines like a starving Grid Bug to a platter of pure liquid energy.

"Whatever you did, I owe you a Drink." Gibson said redoubling his efforts to save the Son of Flynn and his friend Quorra. "Q... I hope that you are still safe." With that Gibson recalculated the time for the system to reconnect to the User World. "Anon... Keep up that protection, we are going to do the User of all System Upgrades to this Defense Network."

* * *

Time had passed for Gibson as he now stood looking at the Buxom Silver haired program before him who was writing on her tablet. There was something attractive about her that had caught him the moment she had walked through the door. Though she had curves on her, it was the intellect behind her eyes that captivated him with their raw powers. All this was happening as his attention started to move towards the New Monitor Programs that came into the room with Radia. These were the Programs who had been the ones who had pulled the Hail Mary pass that had saved Sam, Quorra and their friend's lives by their interface into the I/O tower streams to the User World.

Sam and Quorra had been saved and now were on their way to a location where they converse with their new allies in the User World. That was one crisis that had been dealt with, now it was the arrival of the new programs and from the looks of it Anon would have more than enough backup if a threat reared its head on the Grid once again.

Gem who along with Yori were for the time being doing their best in sorting through their knowledge of User physiology, but it had been Asohka and Hime who stated that they knew some information on the subject that lead Radia to place them on the project.

Whatever had Radia had seen on Gem's disk had made this a major priority. So it was now a countdown for the events to come into play.

For Gibson, somewhere in the back of his mind... He swore he had seen Zuzu somewhere, but couldn't remember the exact place.

Well it would be a few hours till Sam and Quorra would be calling again, he might as well take the calm of the storm to get some rest. With that Gibson walked over and started to talk to Zuzu and he remembered where he had seen her.

In the back of Gibson's mind, he knew that his late friend Flynn was grinning right now. Sometimes you are destined to meet someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with.

* * *

Whew... After an entire summer I finally got this monster of a chapter out of the way.

Sorry about taking so long, but I had a lot of information to convey in this chapter and a lot of Chekhov Guns to load. (GUNS... LOTS OF GUNS.)

First off _discombobulated_ _is defined as -_ to throw into confusion. To confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate.

Additionally, you are going to catch a lot of things in this chapter.

Yes, I brought Yori back. Since she is a science genius she was the most logical choice to bring into the story. And no, she doesn't know that Trace is Tron just yet, nor does the rest of the characters. I am holding that for a later chapter.

The entire Quorra, Radia, Flynn thing. Well if you look at Radia' profile on the Tron Wikia site and how she acted in the Tron Evolution Game, it was in my eyes more of a mother/daughter relationship and seeing how Radia behaved around Flynn, well... This is what I think might have happened in the years after Flynn's wife Jordan died.

EULA - Well is End User License Agreement and it is the do and do nots that come up every time that you install or update a piece of software. I thought it would be seen by the Programs as being a sort of terms of what they can do on a system and what they could do to a User. (Read the fine print when you do your next update for iTunes or receive notification of the update to your Facebook account. It gets hilarious and somewhere out there is a Rendition of Richard Dreyfuss, (Yes that Richard Dreyfuss) reading out the Apple EULA. It is quite an eye opening experience.)

If you caught the Bleach and other kick butt hero references for the COFEE Monitor programs, I salute you.

And if you caught who Wyland is... your good... If you caught the name reference, Better!

Also I threw in a few references I could find to Tron: Uprising characters.

Well back to the Real User World for the next chapter.

Please leave a review below…

And what's this… a backpack with the initials EDJr.

Wait, you are not to be here…

_**(Zap)**_

_**(Thud)**_


	13. Chapter 12

Magic and Programs Chapter 12

* * *

I am in the process of casting this story with actors to play my additional characters to this universe that have not been cast in the Tron, Tron Legacy, or Sorcerer's Apprentice films.

If you have an idea of who you like to have cast... Let me know.

Now on with the story...

* * *

Edward Dillinger Jr. had spent weeks tracing Sam Flynn's movements. Whatever was going on had to do with whatever Sam had found in his old father's arcade. Between the Cassini class reactor and the Japanese built MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) generator that had been tied the mishmash of vintage computer servers. The amount of memory the system would barely fill a single blade panel of the most Current ENCOM server. But it was several Gigs of data that Sam Flynn wanted retrieved off of that system. Ergo, though vintage... This server did belong to Kevin Flynn, which meant breakthroughs... Ergo... this would give him a lead on what that girl Quorra Iso was working on.

Given the attacks on ENCOM and the IT guys going through the place to disarm those Active Denial weapon cameras. Edward knew that whatever was going on was big. Whatever Sam's father had been working on had to do with DNA. So it probably had to do with Genetic computing. The idea of building a genome based computer where both hardware and software were one screamed of what the Late Kevin Flynn would have been into. So why would Flynn need all of the electricity and a something called the SHV 20905 laser for something having to do with DNA.

But it had been Edwards own searching through Sam's computer system through a back door program that he had put in that had gotten his attention. Sam had rented some of the offices and labs down at the old ENCOM building. So given what was going on. Edward wanted to get to the bottom of it and why was his name and his father's both on a list of candidates for something called the Singularity Research Committee.

With that Edward walked into the building using his tablet computer and started to bypass the security system of the main entrance using his program intrusion dataset that he used to beta test OS12. With a grin the main door beeped as he walked through to see...

Alan Bradley.

"Alan!" Edward said in shock as he walked backwards a step. That was when Alan took him by the wrist and brought him in.

"Looks like you had the same gut feeling I did." Alan said moving Edward with him down the hallway.

"Wha..." The younger Dillinger said realizing that Alan wasn't going to scold him for the B and E, but the shock of having the Senior head board member moving you down the hall. "Alan... How did you know that I would be here?"

"Because, A) You are like, me... Concerned about how the company looks, B) you think about what is going on with the people. C) You smell that there is something up with Sam." And the last thing caught Edward's attention fully. "That and you are not the only one who placed remote viewing software on his systems." With that Alan pulled out his tablet and started to play back some information he had found on Sam's work system. "I have something to tell you about the night that Sam's father disappeared."

* * *

Anna looked at the door that opened up. Talk about a big damn door to this place. Whatever Sam and Quorra had behind this thing had to be major if you needed a door this thick to guard slash protect whatever was on the other side.

What the Hell did these two have behind the door... A Goddamn Stargate?

"Okay... come on in." Sam said removing his electronic data key off of the door and everyone bailed out of the back of Jet's pickup truck and Balthazar's car.

After a long walk through a series of hallways and a recently retrofitted large research section they came upon another large thick door.

"Okay... I have the feeling that whatever is behind this door has to be big or at least..." Gary said as the door opened to reveal... "...a large empty room with a James Bond laser in it." Gary felt a little defeated or scared realizing that his search to find out who Quorra Iso was just had moved into comic book territory with a whole Double Oh Seven vibe to it. The son of Roy "Ram" Kleinberg, realized that his years in helping his father run the 'Flynn Lives' movement by collecting corporate data on ENCOM financial records just entered into the realm of some serious scary stuff. But the 'Who's Quorra Iso?' rumors had nothing on this very strange room he was now standing in with Sam Flynn and some very strange and mysterious folks.

"So, this is what you did with that laser that we fished out of the basement of your old man's arcade." Jet said getting a look at the laser that was connected to an updated computer terminal and a ton of 250 TB ENCOM blade terminals.

"Well, the system did need an upgrade from all of that old hardware to handle what I am planning to throw at it. But the Shiva is still the same one from the basement." Sam said moving over to the terminal and typing in a few commands. "See, back in the early eighties... the late Walter Gibbs and your mom Jet were working on teleportation. Now given the technology of the time, they were only able to beam an orange in and out of the system from the same location. But given the cost and some nervous ENCOM board members the project was scrapped. But my dad decided to talk Walter and your mom into letting him have the laser." This had perked Jet's interest.

"Wait, you mean that my mom helped..." he pointed at the laser.

"Build a teleportation device... Yes." Sam said as he entered the commands to link the laser to the ENCOM cloud server. "And it works."

"So... all of that software you had me pull off of your old man's computer was..."

"The programs and operating system needed to run this thing." Sam finished the sentence. That was when Anna got a clear look at the room.

"Wait... This room is a..." Anna traced the direction of the glowing lines on the floor that gave the room a strange technological feel to it. The pattern on the floor looked to be markers for a motion capture set for a videogame, though the pinpoints rigging for the cameras to capture the actors in the MoCap suits looked to be vacant from the room in its current state. The room felt more like an airport terminal than a motion capture set as Quorra finished Anna's thought on what this place was.

"Transporter room." Quorra finished the sentence as she walked to a strangely marked pattern on the floor that looked to be a circle followed by what looked to be a pathway that connected the area where the table and the laser in the room were at. The pattern started to make sense if you wanted to shoot a laser at a specific point in the room. "Yes and it connects two points."

"Here and the Grid..." Dave spoke up seeing what Sam Flynn had done. "So... You are trying to complete your father's work." Quorra nodded.

"That is the least we can do in his memory." Quorra said looking over the new layout. "for the most part, we want this place to look like the Beacon site on the Grid to keep some of the more nasty stuff from getting out into the real world." This was when Gary gave her a confused look on his face realizing that he hadn't be brought into the loop.

"Grid? Is that the codename of the facility that Kevin Flynn used to perform research on advanced technologies." Gary said looking around the room with its Black and White grid lines covering everything. Even with the back of the reinforced door.

"You might say that." Sam said realizing that this would be the time to reveal Quorra's origins. "The thing is my dad was experimenting with the idea of Human Consciousness upload. See, from between eighty-two through till he disappeared in eight-nine, he used a loophole in physics and technology to digitize himself into the computer system. See the laser took and stored his physical DNA data in its buffer, but given the human mind, the computer had to store that data separately. So with compression technology and a bit of algorithmic knowledge he was able to place his mind into a digital environment. But he hit a snag, the system would only allow him to stay in the system for a total of eight minutes before it would have to power down, so he came up with a time dilation protocol where the system would make one minute equal to one hour. A sixty to one ratio. Once there he would be able to create to his heart's content, creating programs to populate that world to interact with, develop technologies, experiment with theories, play games. That was until things went bad. That was when one of the programs he created decided to do a coup de ta and trap him in there along with those he was working with, and with no way to call for help he couldn't tell people where he was at." With that two people walked in that threw Sam for a loop. "Alan..."

"I had a feeling that there was something more about that night that you went to the arcade... But..." Seeing the laser things fell into place. "I never thought that him being stuck behind his desk would be so literal." Alan walked over and traced his hand over the surface of the touch display desk. "So, how much of Flynn's death is true in your cover story that you gave us and the press."

"Balthazar, I think it is time for us to use our visual aid to explain the events of what happened to Kevin Flynn and why we are here." Dave said as he motioned for Veronica to use her powers. A moment later Edward Dillinger Jr., Alan Bradley, his son Jet, Anna Hildy, and Gary Hammer all got a crash course in a thousand years of Grid history and the hidden world of Magics.

* * *

"Oh... Shit!" Edward said in shock afterwards. That was when Sam reached over and pulled out a bottle of MD 20/20 green fortified wine and let the newbies take a slug. This was a lot to take in.

Quorra knelt by her friend. She had part dreaded this day, part wished for this day.

"So..." Quorra said looked at her friend and bit her lip. "How are you handing it?"

Anna bit her lips. Looked around the room. Glanced at a vomiting Edward Dillinger Jr. who had his face firmly placed into a plastic recycle bin heaving his guts out after shot gunning half the bottle of the cheap liquor. Alan looked to be slowly sipping a bottle of microwaved warm water with a couple aspirin. Gary... Well he was poking Balthazar Blake's cheekbone several times to annoyance, but after a glare walked over to a corner of the room to be alone before deciding that watching her and Anna would be an interesting topic. Jet... Well was with Becky talking about being part of the outsiders to the 'weirdness club'. But it was looking at Sam and Dave sitting at the terminal to the teleportation laser that Anna finally gave her response.

"Let's see... in the last forty-eight hours, I have seen my best friend zapped with a heat ray, have her mind downloaded by an apprentice of Merlin, learned about tech from another world... nearly been blown up in a Chinese food restaurant, shot at by killer robots in a high speed freeway chase, learned that my best friend is a skin job Cylon, who might be the real life version of Athena Agathon. Ah... Met the great, great, great... Whatever descendant of Merlin and his girlfriend, and to top it all off... I find out that the foster brother of my boyfriend happens to be the son of the real life version of Thomas "Neo" Anderson from the freaking MATRIX..." then with a deep breath, Anna vented out loud. "**HOW DO YOU THINK THAT I FEEL LIKE...** _**PEACHES**_!" With that Quorra began to cry, then she got angry and slapped Anna across the face.

"Do you know, what it is like to hide what you are from those you want to be friends... To hide... move place to place... not knowing who to trust. That your origins might get you very much killed or worse..." Quorra vented at Anna. "I lived over a thousand cycles, running, hiding... fearing that one mistake would do me in." Quorra reached over and pulled up her sleeve to reveal her tattoo. "This is the sign of my people. Something to be once proud of…" Quorra turned to look at the device that made travel between her world and here possible. "My people were meant to be the miracle that was to help guide you into a new age to your kind." Quorra's tears were hot and hard as they burned down her face. "Help solve problems that you people had struggled with for centuries. Learn from you; show you how connected your world was with others." Quorra slumped against the wall. "I wanted to tell you the truth about what I was, where I was from..." Quorra said with her energy spent. "Now with my life flipped upside down... It is the Purge all over again. just that I didn't expect to run into another evil like Clu." Anna looked at her friend and started to realize that Quorra had been through a lot over the last few days. "I knew that Sam was working on something pertaining to the hard drive that contained my birth home. Just that I never knew that we going to be relying on it so much because of recent events." Anna reached out and Quorra felt her friend's hand on her shoulder.

"Well it is a lot to take in, in so little time." Anna said as Quorra turned to look at her. "Well this tops off the rumor that you are an Alien. But I doubt anyone saw this coming."

"Well given how Edward Dillinger is taking it, I think I was the curve-ball he never expected." Quorra said looking at programmer who now was on the warm water and aspirin diet.

"Yeah... Well I think he got beaned by the ball." Anna said looking at the scene. "Well Quorra... What's next?" Quorra looked at her friend as she started to digest the information presented towards her.

"I don't know, but I think that Dave and Sam are currently working on that." Quorra said gesturing over to the computer terminal.

"Well, one mess down... another to sort through." Anna said getting up and offering her hand to Quorra.

"Yeah... I don't look forward to being the target for someone's hate once again." Quorra said standing up.

"Well, once we get through this, you have to show me some of the places that you hung out when you were younger."

"Like how I play Extreme Frisbee better than most of the players on the field." Quorra said as she walked over to the terminal.

"Yeah... I was wondering that..."

"I placed as one of the top three players sixteen times in a row for the Grid Disk Battles tournament." Quorra said with a shrug.

"So who was the top ranking..." There was a pause from Anna. "Let me guess... Flynn... Right!"

Quorra with a soft grin gave her answer.

"No... Tron." That was when Anna stopped cold.

"Tron... as in THE Tron!"

"Yeah... But Flynn placed top five and had more style to his moves... Though Flynn did beat Tron on the Lightcycles tournament." Quorra added remembering her life on the Grid.

"Well that explains a lot about your driving." Anna said taking note of Quorra's 'driving like a bat out of Hell' vehicle use that had become prevalent over the last two days.

"Well, Sorry about slapping you."

"Well, sorry about calling you a Cylon."

"Even..."

"Even!" With that the two friends gave each other a hug accepting the other as a true friend.

* * *

Dave was standing over the ENCOM smart desk as Sam had reestablished the video link between the Grid and the Real World. The technology that Sam had at his disposal was quite considerable. But given that he was doing upgrades of an existing technology and a laptop back at his Lab, well having a friend like Sam wouldn't hurt in getting a couple grand in superconductor material to create an inverse gravity field. But creating a hydrogen fuel cell out of the stuffing of a down pillow was something that was sitting on the workshop of his lab.

Seeing how Sam was doing his best to balance his work and his mission made Dave a bit envious of his position.

"So... How are you handing things with the entire 'change the world' mission?" Dave said leaning over Sam as he connected ISP data and the system started to run through authentication logins.

"Alright... Just trying to put things so that I can finish my Dad's dream." There was a pause from Sam before he continued. "From what Quorra has said about the things she can remember about the time while living with Dad while he was trapped on the Grid, my Dad left a lot of stuff unfinished that he wanted to bring into the real world but couldn't because he needed help on the outside to complete it and integrate it into the tech he was developing." That was when he saw Quorra and Anna get into their verbal tussle and Quorra vent out in anger with a slap across Anna's face.

"Ouch..." Dave said looking at Quorra break down. "Looks like Quorra and her friend need a lot of time to mend fences." Sam Sighed.

"Yeah... I was kind of expecting this... But not the entire Ed Jr. and Alan being here." Sam said looking over at Alan help Edward to his feet.

"Yeah..." Dave watched everyone in the room ordinate around the elephant in the room. "Not every day that you have everything you know of get flipped upside down."

"But this time there are witnesses to this weirdness." Sam said watching Quorra and Anna start to get to the heart of the matter before them. Jet talking with Becky about some of the past adventures, but it was Gary who was hovering around the room sampling the conversations that was getting a little weird as he finally stood by Anna and Quorra to listen in. "Looks like Gary decided to go to where the action is taking place."

"Yeah... looks and feels like High School again." Dave said as the system chirped as the interconnects started to run.

"But this time we have the Preppy classmate and the Dad dealing with the... 'Oh crap... what the Hell have we gotten ourselves into' factor." Sam said watching as Balthazar started to move over and start to speak to Alan and Dillinger. That was when Anna and Quorra decided to start walking over to the terminal after giving each other a hug as they started to talk about Tron and Quorra's driving.

"So... What have you two been talking about?" Quorra said seeing the system do its final connection to the network.

"Dad's Dream... and..." There was a pause before he continued... "Watching how everyone is dealing with the revelation of what is going on." That was when the computer started to show the status of the Grid and brought up the black screen and white text of the emulated operating system. Sam did a few taps on the screen and the OS changed, yet stayed the same at the same time

"What did you do?" Dave said looking at the screen.

"Well, the Grid has been running on an emulation of my Dad's old system. The nice thing about Emulators... Given what you are running, and the version of the system you are on. You can merge two different Operating Systems together in such a way that you can't tell the two apart on the user side but on the operating side the two systems can run like they are part of their original default system. It is a trick that I picked up while developing mobile technology programs. Figured out how to run XP off of a sixth generation classic MP3 player doing this trick."

"So you didn't mess with the OS, you just had the emulator fold into the OS." Anna said looking at the screen.

"No... " Sam said before he continued. "The Grid is on a Virtual Machine System, like the XP I used, but the interface happens to be a Graphic User Interface overlay with the current software. See..." Sam tapped a button and the screen reverted back to what was before. "Essentially it is Classic view and HD view that we are doing for some of the games we are coming out with. I just decided to apply it to an OS to save me some time."

"Oh..." Anna shrugged. "So you can add the appearance of ENCOM OS 8, to SuperFlynn and no one would be the wiser unless they did a look at the build." Sam nodded.

"Yeah..." That was when the system started to beep as an overview of the cities and structures on the Grid started to show themselves. "Okay, looks like I got the system up and running here and..." Sam activated the system to provide a video link and well got an eye full of... Well he didn't know what was going on in the background, but it one wasn't Gibson on screen, through Gibson was getting some action given the very sensual and very female looking naked back that was practically covering the camera view.

"Oh, Gibson. Oh, Gibson... Oh, Gibson..." With that Sam stopped the feed and looked at Quorra.

Clearing his throat Sam started to speak slowly as Quorra just blushed. "So..."

"Yeap... Gibson hasn't changed one bit from when I knew him." With that Sam looked down at his watch and tapped it a few times as he slowly started to do the math.

"I take that as being normal?" Anna said giving a quizzical look realizing that they may have caught a softcore porn moment in cyberspace being done by computer programs.

"Hey... Flynn made the Grid to reflect your world in many ways." Quorra said a little embarrassed realizing that little scene with Gibson and his Girlfriend was a bit more information that her User Friends were used to dealing with in their view of Programs such as herself. "Um... Sam I think enough time has passed so that Gibson should be... Um... Done." With that Sam activated the search system again and located Gibson in a large Rectifier carrier command area. Then the screen went live.

"Um... Gibson... Thanks for the..." The female program said as she turned towards Gibson as the last of her clothes rezzed into place.

"Good time..." Gibson started to scratch the back of his head. "I think it was something more..." There was a pause from him before he continued. "... I mean I think that I am starting to understand what Flynn spoke of when he said: 'When you find the right girl, and you feel it between the two of you... You have found the one that you want to spend the rest of your life with.'"

"I feel the same way." The female program said as she blushed.

"Well... How about we spend some more time together, I have some time ahead where we can enjoy a nice time out. I know a guy who can score us some tickets to a show of Grid Dancing… I mean I can always find something else do swap them with."

"I really like to." That was when the female program leaned in to kiss Gibson. Sam let the girl have her moment before he decided to speak up.

"Gibson… Do you hear me… We are having a bit of a connection issue here. We are…. Connection…" Sam mouthed the words with the audio but Gibson got the point as the female program understood that she should leave.

"Talk with you later Zu.." Gibson said as the program mouthed "Okay." As she left.

It took Gibson a moment to realize that the connection was perfect as Sam just grinned back at him.

"So… I take it that that was a girl that you are interested in seeing." Sam spoke over the link.

"Yeah… she is one of the returned. One of her friends was supposed to hook us up at the End of Line Club, but she didn't show." There was something more to that sentence, but for the time being Dave knew that whatever Gibson and his Program Friends had dug up would help them. "So, what can I do for you SamFlynn."

"Listen after a little talk here with Dave and his Friends, we figured out that these Mordrid Guys are hooked to a bigger organization. Could you tell us what you have found so far."

"Give me a sec to get everyone down here." Gibson said as he reached over and tapped a few controls on the terminal he was on and placed a call. "Anon… Get Radia and everyone's ass down here. Sam and Quorra are on the line."

"So… How much did you see of me and Zu's conversation?"

"Enough to know that you care about her to take her to the Ballet, and that you have some serious feeling about each other." Quorra said giving her information.

"Well, I haven't felt this way about anyone before… I mean the energy… is nothing like the fems I have dated in the past." Dave wondered what energy meant exactly between programs and hoped that it wasn't a reference to the softcore porn he had seen a moment ago. With that Alan and a somewhat plaid looking Edward Dillinger walked over to the terminal along with Balthazar, Veronica, Becky and Jet.

"Whoa…" Alan said looking at the monitor and seeing Gibson for the first time and the Digital world Sam's late father worked on secret. "I knew Flynn was up to something big… I didn't know it was AI… or something beyond it."

"Oh… User!" Gibson gulped seeing Alan for the first time.

"I take it you are Alan1 and you raised… Sam…" Gibson shook his head hard as Anon came through the door. "No wonder Clu never saw Sam coming." That was when Alan stepped out of the way as Anon and the rest entered the room.

"SamFlynn… could you please give us an update on the situation on your end?" Anon spoke with authority. Sam looked around at the others before he spoke.

"The others are doing fine and are safe here with Quorra and myself." Sam watched the behavior of the rest of the individuals on the other side of the screen. "What information can you give us on Mordrid Security?" Sam watched as the programs entered the room and to his surprise one of the programs looked like Jet's mom... Laura.

With that Gibson and the others started to read out what they had learned.

* * *

Mordrid Security had been a private contract security force that had been involved with some shady stuff over the years in and outside of the United States. Other than training personal security for various private companies such as ENCOM's overseas offices, the company had also done work for the United States military and subcontract work for UN operations. That was when something piqued Sam's interests as he asked to hear what shady operations Mordrid had been involved with the UN.

Starting back in the late eighties and early nineties… Mordrid had through various incarnations been the subject of various investigations. Most of these investigations pertained to human slavery/trafficking, drug smuggling, weapon sales, artifact theft, and undercutting various bids for reconstruction efforts in war-torn regions. When Balthazar broke in, he asked for what items and locations had been hit for the artifact theft and went white as a sheet as Gibson showed the company website and the locations of the reported thefts.

"What is it Balthazar?" Dave said looking at his mentor as he returned with the words.

"There are things that are not meant for the world of Man given the power they represent and the dangers they have over the world of the Unseen."

"So we are talking bad stuff." Jet said adding his bit of information in.

"Think of the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark combined with a nuke and multiplied by a thousand. Yeah... Bad stuff. If you consider the End of the World as being a bad thing."

"Okay... thanks for the nightmare fuel." Dave said looking around at everyone on both ends of this conversation.

"So what do we do now? I mean, given how pissed these guys are. I think they won't stop coming after Quorra until she is dead." Anna spoke giving her two bits.

"Well, given that they are after me. I think the best odds that we have for the time being is to find a way to make Quorra no longer be a target of the Morganians and Mordrid's flunkies. So..." Everyone started to follow Dave's train of thought. "We need to make it look like Quorra was being used as bait."

"So... we make it look like they have a mole in their organization." Sam said snapping his fingers.

"Exactly..." Balthazar said seeing that Dave was trying to do the right thing. "and maybe in the process break up their operations some so that they can lose a ton of the items they have stolen from around the world."

"So, how do we plan to do this?" Jet said as the hair on the back of his arms started to stand on end.

"Hey... do you feel that..." Anna said as she and everyone else started to feel the change in the air as suddenly the thick door to the ripple and then... open.

"Sam... How complex it the lock on that door that we came through?" Veronica said forming an energy bolt in her hand.

"A 512 bit encryption base with biometric facial recognition." Sam responded back.

"So a combination key and a picture of a face. Great... Just Great!" Balthazar said shaking his head in disbelief as the door started to slide open enough for a... Man with an assault weapon rush through. Balthazar used his powers to shut the door with all of his might as Veronica fired off a bolt at the man only to have the man dodge around it while shooting off several rounds at Quorra and her friends.

Dave raised his own protective barrier to shield Quorra as Sam lunged to get Alan and Edward down to the ground. That was when Balthazar got off a shot and the figure was flung to the ground making a huge dent into the modular electrical flooring. But the impact ripped into the wiring into the floor starting out a short in the electrical system. The intruder started to change in appearance as he started to grow claws and fangs as he rose from the floor with superhuman might. With a rip of energy, Balthazar and Dave directed their powers towards the creature man as Veronica moved to raise her own barrier as sparks started to fly.

"Warning Energy Surge... SHV laser sequence initiated." A electronic voice called out and in a flash Anna, Becky, Gary and Jet had been hit by the beam as a cube pattern formed around them as Balthazar slammed the attacker into the ground as he hissed. Dave rushed over forming his powers to their full might and flash froze the attacker into place as he turned to see Becky sucked via laser into the SHV unit that had been initiated by the electrical short in the floor.

"BECKY!" Dave screamed as turned and ran to where Becky had been standing as the last of her shoe vanished into the beam. Sam stood up pulling Alan and Edward off of the floor to see Quorra shaken and their attacker now frozen onto the wall laughed madly.

"You shall fall like those four." Sam didn't care at that time as between him and Dave they both delivered a punch of equal force to the creature's face knocking him out cold while saying:

"Will you shut up!"

After the intruder had been dealt with, both Dave and Sam turned to see the laser's electrical wires flash as part of the system looked like it had been zapped to Hell and back.

"Crap..." Sam said looking at the damage done by their intruder. "Quorra, I need you to check the system and see if Jet, Anna's Becky's and Gary's patterns made it into the system." Dave watched as Quorra moved around the keyboard and typed in commands at speeds that no human could achieve. Then Quorra looked up.

"Looks like they made it onto the Grid. That is the good news." Then Quorra frowned. "The Bad news is that communications link is fried." That was when Sam kicked away the weapon the floor to vent his anger.

"So we can't get a message to them." Dave said worried.

"Not exactly... The environment editor is still intact. But given the chaos on the Grid. We need to do something Big to get someone's attention." Quorra said concerned.

"Well... We need to do something in the next eight minutes because after that one of us will have to go in there to fish them out." Sam said realizing that this is what probably his dad had felt like when he had become trapped on the Grid.

"Well, get to work to sending the message." Dave said moving over to the burnt out wires. "I'll get to working on fixing the wiring for the return trip."

"Yes you do that." Balthazar said as he moved over to lifted up the head of their unconscious attacker. "I'll see what our friend here has to say about what is going on."

Throughout all of this Dillinger and Alan watched silently realizing that despite being out of their element. Each member of this strange group were performing tasks to one get answers, and two get those taken back.

* * *

Sorry about the chapter being so short, but given school and other things, I am going to be doing short chapters for the next little while until Christmas break.

Here are some notes to help you all through with the tech speak in this chapter.

Virtual Machines (VMS) are computer programs designed so that older programs or programs written for different Operating systems can be run on an existing computer system. Computer OS such as Windows 7 have an emulator that can run computer programs designed for Windows XP. Or like Mac which as the ability to create a virtual Windows Machine that can run in the background so that people can run PC utilities on their Macs. **_DosBox_** is one where you can run vintage MS-Dos programs on a Vista or Win7 Machine and adjust the processing speed so that it will run faster or Slower to your preferred requirements. Another program is Virtual Box which allows for two OS to run on the same machine. Sam in the Story is using a fictitious version of this to run the Grid off a network computer terminal.

GUI-Overlays happen to be programs designed to provide a look of a different OS Graphical User Interface while providing the "Under the Hood" performance. A good example of this is **_Rocketdock_** which gives the graphical appearance of a Mac on a Windows Machine. In the Story, this is what Sam uses to make the Solar OS his Father used on his machine to start to look like something he is more familiar with.

Another trick Sam is talking about when he installed XP on an MP3 player is called "PC on a Stick." This is where you create a bootable Flash drive where you have installed an OS and a Virtual Machine. When you stick this flash drive into a computer and restart it. The computer will read the flash drive it will start the OS on it and bring up the system using that as the start disk. From there the computer will view the flash drive as being the PC and externals such as the printer, monitor and keyboard will be used as part of the actual virtual machine. Ubuntu Is one of OS that can be configured like this to run off a flash drive as well as Iomega has a setting that configures their external hard drives into PC stick machines which contain all of your files that can be used while you travel.

Check out YouTube and you will see examples of these running on actual machines.

Below is who I have cast so far in the story. I still have to cast Jet and a few other Characters but let me know what you think and who you would cast. Send me an e-mail or a post.

_**Quorra - Olivia Wilde**_

_**Sam Flynn - Garret Hedlund**_

_**Dave Stutler - Jay Baruchel**_

_**Balthazar - Nicholas Cage**_

_**Veronica - Monica Bellucci**_

_**Becky - Teresa Palmer**_

_**Jet - Chris Pine (Thanks Sabi)**_

_**Anna - Julie McNiven**_

_**Gem - Beau Garret**_

_**Anon - Jared Padalecki**_

_**Gibson - Jensen Ackles**_

_**Sabi - Seychelle Gabriel**_

_**Radia -Kari Wahlgren**_

_**Jalen - John Glover**_

_**Mera - Mandy Moore**_

_**Sura - Erin Cummings**_

_**Zuzu - Christina Hendricks**_

_**Nel - Julia Benson – Played Vanessa James on Stargate Universe.**_

_**Beck - Elijah Wood**_

_**Ellie - Kate Findlay**_


	14. Chapter 13

Sorry about taking so long to update, but I have been finding a lot of my old material lately. So I decided to start working through it and start posting what chapter I have gotten done so far before I get too deep into this semester's paperwork.

Thanks for the reviews so far, keep them coming.

Well this is enough of me blabbering on,

On with the story...

* * *

Magic and Programs Chapter 13

* * *

Tia was hunting Grid Bugs in the Outlands with her fellow Programs. Between the heavy combat bodysuit she had rezzed on her body that highlighted the curves of her feminine form, it was the large heavy pointed shield that she carried with her. She put her faith in the shield that would protect her from the Grid Bug's fangs during this hunt. Watching the smallest of their group, Pixel ready her data bow she watched as their hunting party stood ready to pounce on their prey.

For most Programs having Grid Bug wasn't considered something one would eat out of good taste... But given period of time since the dark times of Clu's reign, many programs had fled into the Outlands and had made it their home. Several of the Programs that now lived out here had known of the Isos time out here and even a few had participated in learning from the Isos, when they still existed, how to live off of the land. It was a hard life, but it was theirs.

For the section of the land in which this group of fifty or so Programs lived at. This place was dually important to them. This was one of the locations where the Creator had hid during the early days of the Tyrant's reign. It was also where the programs here had seen first hand the explosion that destroyed the Tyrant and the Creator.

The flood of liquid energy that had erupted from the blast had covered the area in a fairly decent level of nutrients that drew wild programs into this area by the gigabyte that life was practically coming out of every crevice of this sacred land. But it was the Grid Bug that was feeding on a small puddle of energy that would provide much needed sustenance for the group of programs back at the base camp for several millicycles to come.

With a motion of her hand Tia ordered Pixel to fire her bit arrow at the Grid bug's head. As the arrow flew through the air, the elongated form of it flickered for just a moment just before it collided with the head and embedded itself so that it would not derezz the creature's energy. Quickly moving Tia called out: "Move... we have only moments to remove the limbs before it has a chance to reboot."

With that Tia and the other hunters moved in to pin the creature down. Tia's main goal was to keep the body down so it wouldn't be able to move as the others used their disks to chop off the limbs and it's maw so it would be safe to carry back to their camp. As that was taking place Tia started to feel something. Something other than a few cycles ago that could be felt only by a random few programs. Now here in the Outlands, those who had been outside when the blast had occurred were now blessed with a gift of sacred proportions.

As the Grid bug was tied to a sled with Rez Rope, Tia walked away from the group towards the direction of what she was feeling. That was when she saw it and fell to her knees.

"The Users have returned." Tia said in awe as The Beacon glowed bright on the horizon and for once she desired to serve the Users once again.

* * *

"Yori... Did the Rez beam pull any Users in during the attack on their side before we lost transmission?" Anon spoke to the elder program as she worked her way through her remote access to the systems she was part of. Meanwhile, Sura and Gibson were doing their best to reestablish contact with SamFlynn and the Users to see if the beam had brought anyone to the Grid.

"I think a few... I can't tell you the total number because the surge corrupted the targeting system." Yori said with concern as she pulled several errant locks of hair behind her ears.

"Can you check to see the number of patterns that were transferred into the system?" Gibson said looking up from his own problem at hand with the communications system.

"I'll check." Yori said as she searched the pattern buffer of the data to see... several large chunks of data on the system. "hold on..." Yori scrolled through the large sections of code before her. "One... Two... Three..." She exhlaed some seeing the last of the stored pattern buffer data come before her. "Four... There are four Users here." With that Anon moved over to see the raw data.

"Do you know where they are?" Anon said with concern.

"I have no idea where Flynn's rez point was at here on the Grid." Yori said with concern. Radia moved over and placed her hand on the elder program who was the Guardian of the beam between the User World and the Grid.

"Maybe... We should check the Beacon... They might be there." Radia said using what little information she had the system Flynn had created.

"Okay." Anon said moving over and started to gather volunteers to head to the Beacon.

"Gibson, you and Sura continue work on reestablishing a link between here and the User World."

"You don't have to tell me twice Anon." The Bostrom Iso said as he moved and flipped open a terminal and started to pull out code elements to see if he could jump-start the connection in some way.

That was when a lone figure walked into the room.

"Flynn's arrival beacon was in Tron City." Everyone turned to see Trace standing in the doorway along with the young Iso Ellie.

"How do you know that?" Anon said moving over to Trace's location.

"Because I served as Flynn's bodyguard before Clu repurposed me into Rinzler." Trace bowed his head in shame.

"Okay, Trace you are on the team that is heading into the city. Jarvis, you double check the logs of where SamFlynn was picked up for the games. From there we can find the Rez Portal from the User World." Anon said realizing now that their search area had changed in a matter of moments from being near the beacon to being right inside of Tron City itself.

"I will do my best in aiding you in finding that location Monitor." Jarvis said bowing his head as he moved out of the room to his stash of records he carried near him.

* * *

Jet rolled over from the desk he had slammed into. The very same desk that he had helped Sam move from his father's arcade to ENCOM's IT workshops to salvage data from. Turning around jet turned to see Becky lying on top of the desk. Then seeing Anna helping Gary up off of the floor.

"What the Hell was that?" Gary said looking around the dark room. After a moment Becky was helped down by Jet who was checking out the area noticed several things. The lack of dust and the fact that outside he could hear traffic from vehicles that sounded almost electric.

"I think we were teleported to the Grid." Becky said pointing to the laser in the room.

"Well I was expecting the place to look more Tron-esq." Gary said looking around the room that just looked like any plain basement office in the real world.

"I think we better get out of this room." Becky said remembering her knowledge of what she had seen in Quorra's memories.

"Well if this place is set up the same as its counterpart in the Real World, We just follow the hallway and stairs up." Jet said as the sound of what sounded like a motorcycle outside pulling up. With that the four humans walked out through the double doors to the lab and out towards the hidden door towards the ground level.

* * *

Sabi looked around the area that Anon had marked out. Between the number of transports and foot personnel searching for the Users. They had to be cautious due to the fact there were still programs still loyal to Clu about and claiming the life of a User would be a great boost to their cause.

There were stories floating about that during the fight in the User World, that one of their attackers might have been hit by the Rez Beam that connected both worlds together and had been brought to the Grid. The idea of a Dark User, as the EULA called them, being on the Grid frightened her.

Looking down the street Sabi saw the appearance of a several Grid tanks down the block. This moved Sabi to get on her Communications unit and contacted Anon. They needed to bring some forces down to this place to protect the Users or stop the nightmare that may have arrived on the Grid. Either way the their world was in danger of being lost from outside or from within as she saw who they would be facing.

General Tesler was back.

* * *

Anon had heard stories of Tesler. One of Clu's more ruthless Generals, very prolific, very dangerous with his schemes. He was the main reason that there were hidden communities lying in the Outlands. It would take time for those programs to feel safe enough to return to any of the cities for anything.

That was when the engines to the lightjet started to burn faster to get them to their destination.

* * *

Jarvis had been right about this location. This felt like a place a User would feel safe at. Ellie knew this place felt different. That was when other programs around her started to feel it too.

"Users..." Trace said with almost reference. that was when he removed his disk from his back and joined with the EULA Monitors as they drew their weapons.

"And something else..." Itchy said using his powers to scan the area.

"Yes... I can see the Red." Nel said as she checked her own disk to ready it to use as a shield in close combat. With that they could see the red grid tanks roll down the street.

* * *

General Tesler was one of Clu's more ruthless generals. He preferred logic in his seeking of a goal. Clu was limited in his thinking, but broad in his goals. Tesler was the opposite. He was wide in this thinking in seeing all of the angles and variables to an equation and sought to achieve it through a single goal. Tesler viewed the Grid and the Universe as following a set of rules. Even the Isos followed a set of rules on their behavior, that even meant that Users that the Isos emulated so much followed rules as well.

One just had to get through the distractions to view the key answers.

Now with the Beacon ablaze. The clock was ticking.

Tesler knew that according to the stories and the legends that he had been able to piece together that Users were the most weakest when they first appeared on the Grid.

That meant if you needed to slay one, you had to act fast with significant firepower to take them down.

That is why he wasn't taking any chances.

Clu had struck with only a small strike team to attack Flynn. The end result had been several programs Derezzed and an injured Tron who along with an escaped Flynn having starting a resistance movement.

It would take ages for Clu to capture Tron and repurpose him into his loyal enforcer and tracker Rinzler. Tesler had seen the process first hand and was pleased with the results.

With a division of these foot-troops the Grid would have been pacified, controlled… Perfected. But Clu in his short sightedness had only created the one Super Soldier and had kept the formula to make more on his own personal disk.

Tesler would have given five whole divisions for that data.

That was when Tesler saw the programs getting off the lightjet.

"Damn… They brought those new Monitors." Tesler said in disgust. "Programs…" Tesler called out to his men. "We do not let those Pprograms pass. If you see a White Disk… You derezz it!" The order went through the Programs under his command. That was when the front of one of the buildings exploded as a strangely shaped box landed in-between the two groups with one word written across one of its sides…

_**TRON**_

* * *

Gem watched as she moved down the street as she followed Anon's orders to check out the buildings. If the Users were here then they could be anyplace. That was when her vision of the events to come started to playback in her mind.

There was a tower, Grid Tanks moving about... Gem focused upon the image of the tower. They were near a tall white spired building. With that she walked across the street and started to scan the skyline of where she was at. There was a sign... a Recognizer...

_**The Home of Space Paranoids!**_

Gem started to scan tops of buildings again looking for that sign.

Then she found it.

"You have to be joking me." Gem said seeing where the sign was located. The sign was sitting on top of the very structure that she and Anon had taken Refuge in when they had been brought back from deletion.

Quickly rushing down the street, she could see several Grid Tanks moving down the street.

"No... Not now..." her vision was unfolding as she had seen it. Then an explosion knocked her off of her feet. One of the buildings had blown up from the inside.

"Great Becky... give us some warning before you do a Kame Hame Ha." A male voice said as the dust settled. Gem struggled to her feet to see several figures coming through a hole in the wall.

"Sorry, but you said between you and Jet that you couldn't get the door to budge. So after a half hour you stated that you wished you had some explosives to blast this thing open Well I didn't have any explosives, but I did have my powers." the female voice said with the occasional cough.

"Yeah... I did, but I didn't want to be pointblank near you blowing the door off of the hinges." The male voice said back.

"Well it is open!" Gem looked over to see a blond figure in a black jacket and leggings step over the rubble of the improvised monitor offices.

"I think if we didn't get someone's attention with that, they would have to be dead." Another female voice said.

"Great... you shot-put the Tron Machine into the center of the street." Another male voice said coming into the open. There was a moan as several programs moved about in the building.

"Crap... There are people hurt." One of the Females said as Gem moved into the room to see. Anna. "You there..." Anna pointed towards Gem... "Come and help me tend to the injured." Gem moved to aid the Warrior User move an injured program to safety. "Becky... Try not to use your powers again. I don't know if these people want to be smited by a novice with the power of a tactical nuke." That was when Gem turned to see the other User, Becky, look around at the damage she had done.

"Oh, Crap..." Becky fell to her knees in the pixelated wreckage more in shock to the damage she had done. That was when Becky realized that things were about to go from bad to worse. "Anna... We have Red Programs approaching!" Gem turned to see several programs both White and Red heading in their direction.

"We need to get the wounded out of here!" Gem called out as several User Allies made their way into the building to help. Suddenly shots started to be fired as several Clu Loyalists started to race in. One of the Clu followers reached over and grabbed Anna forcing her to her feet before dragging her away. Gem withdrew her disk and with all of her might in her hand crashed the disk right into the head of the Red Program. Anna stood there in shock for a moment seeing the program shatter to the ground.

"If you want to live... Fight! Survive..." Gem reached into her pack and tossed Anna a Baton.

"Wha..." Anna spoke as a another Clu Loyalist came at her. It took just a moment for the Warrior User to get through her head that she was in the middle of a fight. Looking down at the Baton she understood somewhat what to do as she used the unactivated baton as a weapon slamming its broadside into the program's chest before stepping around her disorientated attacker. With a speed Gem had only seen once before during the fight at the End of Line Club by Sam Flynn, the Female User started to fight for her life.

Once behind the program, Anna pulled the disk from her attacker's back and used the disk and baton in a fight style she had never seen before. Using a swift clean move, Anna severed the head of the program to shatter on the ground with his own disk. That was when the other Users realized what was going on and started to pick up remnants of objects from the wreckage and started to fight with them.

"What the Hell is going on here?" Anna spoke as one of the Male Users had picked up a makeshift club and started to smash his way through several Red programs that had surrounded him. Meanwhile the other male user who was much larger and heavier in appearance had taken up a fallen sword and started to used a hand on the blade fight style to defend himself. Meanwhile the the blond Female user had started to dodge her attackers and had started running away to get some distance from her pursuers.

"User..." Gem ducked down avoiding a strike from a foe who was taken down by a shooter on her side. "The remnants of Clu's followers want to see you and your kind derezzed."

"Great... So... In other words the only way that we are going to get out of this is that we have to fight our way out of it." Anna said with a curse. "Remind me to kill the jerk who wrote the files for this level." Anna vented her anger out on a Black Guard.

"You despise the Creator?" Gem said with fear as she dodged an attack towards her.

"Who is the Creator of this area?" Anna said as she shoved the collapsed baton through the chest of another Red Program.

"The Father of SamFlynn." With that Anna had to dodge another assault as a program before she hauled off and kicked the individual away to be hit bay a disk flying through the air.

"Sam's Dad... Great... Just great..." Anna said in disgust. "He just had to set this up like the game-play of God of War Three." With that an explosion occured as the Blond User unleashed her powers on an opponent Grid Tank. Between Anna's warrior skills, the other User possessed powers as told in the tales of Flynn's Disk. If the other two Users could harness their powers the same way, then they might make it through this alive.

That was when the battle changed...

The Blond User had teamed up with one of the EULA Monitors and they were alternating back and forth between one attacking while the other provided a barrier for the other.

Suddenly, the attackers started to fall back. Taking this moment, Anon ordered for their forces to hold the area and move their heavy equipment in to hold the area. Grabbing Anna's hand, Gem pulled her back to safty. Then out of nowhere several mini bit arrows were fired. Anna reacted by shoving Gem down to the ground. Before Gem could protest, a another set of shots rang out with one striking Anna through the shoulder.

The image of red fluid bursting out of Anna's body scared Gem as the User collapsed to the ground. Before Gem could call out for help a Red armored vehicle crashed through the remaining wall of Flynn's sanctuary and several programs rushed out and grabbed the User and herself up and shoved them inside. At that moment Gem knew that the had to do her best to keep the leak from getting worst. Taking her cutting finger, she activated the cutting beam and shoved it into the wound to seal the leak. Anna's scream could be felt running through her as the leak was for the time being temporarily plugged. That was when one of the Clu loyalists shoved her back next to Anna. "Stop what you are doing Program... You are now in the custody of the Clu Warriors." With that Gem held tight onto her pack realizing that its contents would mean either life or death for this User. There were many questions and things that Gem didn't understand, but knew for whatever reason, she needed to find out why Anna was angry at the Creator and once she did, maybe she would be someone that other the programs would connect with.

* * *

Becky looked out to see some sort of armored vehicle break through the side of the building and grab two people. It took her a moment to realize that one of the people grabbed was Anna. That was when another vehicle aimed a turret basted gun at them and started firing. The Program fighting alongside her that had a head of orange hair had projected some sort of shield in front of her as the two of them hit the ground. The speed of which they hit the ground to avoid the shots as the semi-transparent screen shattered like large pieces of glass made them flench as debris started to fall on top of them. Before anyone could act, the armored vehicle backed out and sped off. It felt like the fisr time that she had gone with Dave and had run right into Hovath. The sheer feeling of evil that she sensed coming from one of those tanks made her feel ill.

Using what she knew of Magic, Becky pulled the program with the sheild ability up and ran behind an armored truck before her limited magical skills in this land to cast a locate spell on Anna. Casting the locate spell on the clouds in the sky would atleast them keep track of Anna so that they could find her later and mount a rescue. That was when the Red lit soldiers started to fall back and retreat from the area.

Becky knew that for every hour that passed here that a minute passed in the real world, so the sooner that they were able to rescue Anna, the sooner they could get to the portal and get home. Becky prayed that Dave was going to keep it together during those seven plus minutes she was trapped in here ad she watched the Red soldiers pull out from the battle that just had taken place.

Becky hoped that Anna could keep it together as a rescue could be planned to get her back and home.

* * *

TBC

Let me know what you think so far.

Please click the button below and post a review.

Hearns


	15. Chapter 14

Magic and Program Chapter 14

* * *

Sorry for taking so long to update, I have been swamped with school.

Hope that you enjoy.

Now on with the story.

* * *

Jet was angry.

Anna had been taken by these Red glowing guys and this white knight Anon guy was forcing him to stay in one place instead of helping him look for the girl that over the last day or so was starting to like big time.

After fifteen minutes Jet lashed out with his fist and punched the wall. With a loud crash the wall cracked under the blows he delivered to it smashing it like a piece of cheap drywall.

Through the window in the door a female program jumped back in fear before running off scared as Jet turned around to see her. He just scowled. He needed to do something… Anything… He just felt so powerless in this world where beings like himself were considered gods.

"Jet... getting angry and venting at the wall won't help us get Anna back." Becky said as she moved over to calm Jet down. Over in one corner Gary was reading through the hard copy of Flynn's Digital Frontier and was studying something in the text and some computer screen on the wall.

"Hey guys you better take a look at this." Gary said looking at the terminal and with a press of his hand he was able to call up some sort of touch computer display. With a few taps of his fingers he was able to bring up a type of news feed.

_"Current System Status Update. In the last few millicycles, System monitors belonging to the recently restored Iso Administrators Radia and Jalen clashed with forces still loyal to the Clu Regime in Tron City. We are receiving limited information of the events taking place on both sides. So far this has been one of the more intense pixelated battles that have taken place on the Grid since the events of the Death of Clu and the Rerezzing. The numbers of Captured or Deleted is not known at this time, but we will do our best to keep you informed. This has been a System Status Update."_

With that the three humans watched as distance footage was seen of the battle taking place as the outside of the replica of Flynn's Arcade was seen on the screen. "Looks like we made the local news." Becky said realizing that getting out of this was going to be harder than it looked.

At that moment Jet knew that whatever was going on, Sam only knew bits and pieces of what was going on and that poor girl that freaked out when he had hit the wall probably thought he was going to take his anger out on her.

* * *

Meadow still shook in fear after seeing that User slam his fist into the wall of the carrier they were on. She knew that users were strong, but... To crack a wall that thick. A lowly Game Sprite such as herself would be a goner.

Glitch, she originally had come out of a horror video game, and seen scary characters from that world... and she wasn't as scared of those attack programs as much as that User had been when he had vented his anger into the wall.

Looking around the corner, she wondered what would have caused Users to change so much from the stories she had heard since coming to the Game Grid... The Creator had not been this scary, even when he had been angry...

The Creator had only used his anger once when a Game Sprite had gotten hurt in some horrific manner that he leveled an entire hive of Grid Bugs. The Sprite had lived, but had been a rattled from the experience.

It was stuff that you told young Isos so they wouldn't wonder into places they shouldn't have.

That was when a hand reached out and touched her on her shoulder... She screamed.

* * *

A scream could be heard from outside the door.

Becky rushed to see what was happening.

Through the window Becky could see a female program trying to break free of someone as she rushed down the hall.

Becky needed to get out of this room.

With a slap of her hand against a lock panel of the door, the door slid open and she rushed over to the white haired albino skinned program.

The white and silver wetsuit like garment this girl wore pulsed as Becky held on to the girl as she screamed like a scratching hard drive of a computer that had failed as she struggled to bolt away in fear.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." Becky said to the scared girl and looked down the hallway to see another female program wearing a black and blue tunic that wasn't covering up much come from around the corner looking scared. "I'm not going to hurt you!" It took a while for the girl to calm down enough for Becky to look at the silver haired girl's face. The white ghostlike skin and the two lines running down from her eyes made the girl look like a female member of a KISS Tribute band. After a long time Becky let go of the girl and moved back raising her hands in a none aggressive manner. "My name is Becky... What's yours?" The girl pushed herself against the wall as Becky backed against the opposite hallway wall. It took a moment for the program girl to calm down to start talking to Becky realizing that she wasn't a threat.

"My... Dess... Name is Meadow..." The program breathed slowly looked at Becky. "Yo... You are a User." Becky nodded at this.

"Tell me what happened while we were in the City."

The Program seemed a little hesitant to speak but the other one in the glowing blue tunic started to speak.

"My Name is Ren… Ever since the system was restored and the new system monitors were added here. The remainders of the forces loyal to Clu have been fighting to keep what power they have after the resistance started taking back the Grid after Clu's derezzing." That was when the tunic program put one bare foot on top of the other trying her best not to be scared as she fiddled with the hem of her tunic.

"So... a war broke out." Becky said keeping her distance from the two. "You don't have to worry, we won't hurt you." Meadow moved over to Ren.

"You won't derezz us?" The question being said as it was was more of them trying not to be scared in the presence of Becky. From what Becky knew, they considered her to be a god, and the idea of facing someone that might with the wave of their finger would erase them from existence or worse.

"No... I won't... I just want to know what happened." Becky was doing her best to calm these two down as she reached out and placed a hand on each of the girl's shoulders.

"Becky..." Gary popped his head through the door, the two young programs were a bit nervous when he looked at them, but calmed down some realizing that through powerful, these beings didn't want to hurt them. These Out Worlders were like them, scared and confused when they had come to the system. "I think I know what Clu did to... Well screw this place up for everyone here." With that he held up Flynn's book.

"What do you mean?" Becky said moving past the girls and back into the room. Opening the text up Gary pointed at an illustration.

"What do you see in the book?" Gary said as he pointed to the image on the page of the landscape of the Grid.

"Well I see slowly curving hills and mountains on the landscape." Becky said not knowing where Gary was going with this.

"Look outside!" Becky looked up to the landscape to see a black sky with... black obsidian rock with the occasional curved hill.

"Okay I see the Grid... so..." Becky looked back at the image and saw the thing that jumped out at the page.

"What's missing from the picture to the real thing is that the ground should be glowing with light!" Gary flipped over to a page and read. "As I walked through this digital frontier, I saw hills outlined by contours of light and saw a group of Programs playing a mock disk battle. Like a couple playing Frisbee in the park. The very ground reacted to their movement as they ran and jumped across it. The Grid wasn't just a place for information to be storied and handled, it was an environment... An Operating system, though wide and vast, each location has properties in which it would have its own rules in how it should be developed. Programs in these regions would have developed their own culture. Like the Programs I see playing before me, the open plains would offer places for buildings to be built. I saw small towns being established by the various branches of the citizens of the Grid. Each glowing tower and structure sprouting from the glowing..." Gary highlighted that word with his own emphasis. "...ground." Looking back out the window Becky and Jet who now started to understand what was going on.

"Wait... you mean... that the Grid has been changed to look like this?" Jet looked back at the image on the page and realized how much the Grid had been mucked with.

"Yeah... I think that Flynn never saw it because of the eight hour limit on the beam system." Gary said taking note as he flipped through several pages of the text as the two female Programs started to creak into the room.

"You mean the Creator never saw the changes that Clu did to the Grid because, when he was here..." Jet, Becky and Gary saw Meadow and the other Program with her looking scared.

"Yeah... When Flynn was here, there was no accurate time measure, so given that he did come here during the dark hours, nighttime in our world, he must have thought it was nighttime here." Becky said easing the two Programs into a save emotional area.

"That makes you think, on what else this Clu guy did to muck up the system in his own view of perfection." Jet said realizing that Becky had brought the key to healing this system back to where it needed.

"Well, looks like you two have some reading to get done." Becky said as flipped through a few pages and handed the book back to Jet and Gary. "Here, I think this is the section that pertains to turning Mr. Anderson into Neo the One."

"Ah... There is no Spoon. It is you that bends and not the spoon before you." Gary said in his best enlightened guru tone.

"Yes, Mister Anderson... you say that I can dodge bullets, when the time comes, I won't have to." Jet said giving his best Morpheus and Keanu impersonations.

"Yeap... We are definitely in cyberspace with two guys who have memorized the lines to the Matrix Trilogy." Becky said as she ushered the two Programs out of the room so that the two guys could study.

"What is the Matrix? Is it like the Grid?" Becky grinned as she kept the two girls moving.

"Let's just say, those two in there will be more than a hand full when it comes to getting Anna back. So why don't you take me to your leader."

* * *

Radia saw the Users before her. It was strange... but she felt that there was much that this female User and her friends needed to know about the current state of the Grid in order to rescue their companion from the remainder of Clu's army.

This Becky seemed less... well Flynn to her. She yet possessed knowledge about the Grid in ways that awed even her.

Jet seemed more concerned about the User called Anna than anything else but begrudgingly knew that he would need help in saving her and had started to look around the room and access information about the events that had taken place upon their arrival here.

And then there was Gary...

Gary had some aspects of Flynn to him in that he saw this as a puzzle to be solved while impressed by the world he was now in. But it was his inquiries into Quorra's origins that had brought him into being here. For the most part he wanted to ensure that the Son of Flynn wasn't taken advantage of given his status in the User World.

The two female programs that had brought them here stayed nearby giving what information they had overheard about the Users to Anon. Ren and Meadow were almost on the verge of being smitten with Gary as they did their best to explain the system called the Matrix to him given the number of references they had heard Gary and Jet give about that system.

Surprisingly, when Meadow revealed that Clu's damage to the system went deeper than anyone knew made the image Radia was now looking at made her worry.

Somehow these Users had discovered the level of damage of what had been done to the Grid... Now seeing User Jet present the information in the text that Flynn had written about the Grid made her worry more as he was the one that Sam Flynn had charged with the system restore after the events of the Reintegration.

"You are telling me that... The Grid... was changed." the images in the text she had her full attention as she felt the slick color printed pages under her fingers.

"Yes Radia... It looks like the Grid was changed on a level to hide whatever this Clu program was up to. And if he did it slowly over a long period of time... Flynn wouldn't have noticed." Jet said as Radia slowly closed the book to see the youthful image of her friend on its back. The person that had raised Quorra as if she was his own flesh and blood.

Her daughter as Flynn had called her on several occasions.

This familial concept that Users connected with certain groupings always was surprising as she tried to process the concept. User Jet had a bond with Sam Flynn that went deep, maybe it was the reason that Sam Flynn had chosen him to help rebuild the Grid to its former glory.

"This is a lot to take in." Radia said feeling concerned.

"Same for us... I mean... between being shot at when we arrived here." Jet said as Becky looked at the various data feeds that were coming into this command center.

"Yes, User Jet... It seemed that for some actions on our part and lack of knowledge of where the arrival point was between our two worlds were at is what caused many of the problems." Radia knew that there were mistakes made on both sides and now several Programs and a User were now missing.

"Do you know about the individuals that took Anna?" Jet said seeing that one of the leaders of this world had the information he desperately needed.

"Yes... But the person that would have that information would be Anon and Trace. They are more experts on the subject." There was a pause from Radia before she continued. "I know that your experience here on the Grid isn't what it was supposed to be for someone journeying from your world to learn more about us."

"Yeah, well I always wanted to know where Quorra came from and why all of the small things in everyday life... Well Everyday User life was so new to her." Jet exhaled looking around the room. Programs were moving about bringing data to various individuals to look over and sort through with things such as system damage that was when Yori approached. Jet turning towards her looked like he had seen someone he knew Rerezzed.

"Yes... Yori... how is the work on the communications system going?" Jet just watched as he watched the female program speak to her.

"Administrator Radia... We have done our best to establish the link between the worlds, but so far Gibson and Sura have been having some trouble in keeping the link operational to send a message." With this Jet interceded.

"How big of a message are you trying to send?"

"Full communications link." With that Jet rubbed his chin.

"How about one hundred and twenty characters. Not a lot to have a conversation, but enough to fill Sam and Quorra in on our situation."

"That might work..." Yori said realizing that they just needed to communicate status.

"You two get on that... and I will head to the Nexus to pull what information from the system itself to locate your friends." Radia said seeing that for the time being that events both on and off of the Grid were tied to one another. Aiding in one quest would help in helping others finish up theirs. As Radia walked out of the room she looked down at the book in her hands.

"Users..." Radia rushed back to the gathered Users. "This text that you brought with you, I believe it might be of more use to you than us." Becky reached out and took the text and brought it to her chest.

"We will see what we can do." Becky said as the programs that had brought them there stood with them.

"You go find Anna for us." Jet said reaching out and placing a hand on Radia's shoulder. "And... I just noticed it now... Quorra has your eyes."

"Thank you User Jet. Maybe when things have quieted down you can tell me about Quorra's life in your world." Radia said as she turned to leave.

"Wow... That's Quorra's Mom... I didn't know she was a Princess." Gary said as Jet whapped him across the back of his head.

"Yeah... That is probably why she doesn't talk about her past. For all you know she abdicated her throne, or that her mom might be in an elected position. And will you stop staring at her behind." Becky said as they left the chambers to send a message to the User World.

"Yeah... You are not the only one who is dealing with Stacy's Mom issues." Jet said as Gary turned to see Yori as she joined them as they walked down the hallway. With a quick slap of Jet's hand across the back of Gary's head the blogger's eyes were front and center as Becky rolled her eyes with the levity of the situation they were now in.

* * *

Gem felt herself being tossed onto the floor of a pit cell. Beside her lay Anna... Damaged but functioning... Barely...

Looking around the cell, Gem noticed that there were several Programs sitting or standing in the room. Seeing a bed slate Gem started to drag Anna to the structure. It took a moment before other Programs started to aid her to place Anna on the bed.

Gem reached into the bag she carried, though searched through and the baton was taken, the blank disk and its attachment rig, energy vials, and the improvised User Repair kit still remained intact.

Taking her disk off Gem started to scroll through the information she had gathered. That was when Gem noticed that Anna was leaking red fluid again.

"Glitch..." Gem reached into the Bag and pulled out the roll of data fabric and started to bandage the leak as she cauterized the wound area with her cutting finger. "Don't go off-line on me!"

"Where... Where are we?" Anna croaked out.

"A Pit cell..." Gem said wrapping the injury. "Just conserve your energy; I need to do my best in repairing the damage done to you."

"Okay..." Anna said focusing her energy on staying functional. After a moment Anna turned her head towards Gem. "I didn't catch your name..."

"Gem... My name is Gem..."

"Gem... Sam and Quorra's friend... That's good." Anna seemed to relax at knowing that a friend was close... Well a friend of a friend... That was when a green tinted Iso program came up to her.

"Hey... you two look like you have been through trash bin."

"Yes... We have..." Gem said taking in the situation around her. Being a Game Siren who had been in Zuse's employ for several hundred cycles had taught her how to read the programs that had come into the End of Line Club. She did a quick count of the program types. A few Isos from Bostrom, a couple of citizens from Tron City with a mix of purple, white and soft blue code. An Arjian citizen... One who had altered their code to have a bald head… Then the _Oh Glitch_ moment hit.

"User... She... is a User..." Gem grabbed her disk to protect Anna. Through the crowd a program with brown hair wearing a Bostrumite Cloak moved forward as a Blue hued female program next to her fell to her knees.

"Gem..." Anna spoke as Gem felt Anna's hand brush against her leg.

"Glitch." Gem turned around to see red fluid moving again through the patch.

"We... need to... patch the ... Wound." Anna said putting effort into each word to get it conveyed. Quickly Gem grabbed the Iso next to her and stated the following words. "Do you see that red stuff coming out of her?" The Iso nodded. "Good... Because if she loses any more if that, she will cease function. We are not talking shut down, or deletion, we are talking full system wipe, as in reintegration without another program. As in she will be gone like the Creator. And I am not losing another User." Gem was breaking out crying "Now... As one of the rerezzed, I am going to make sure that I won't lose another one that tried to make a difference in this world."

"Okay. I will do my best to help you." With that the Iso program moved over to the bed slate and took Anna's hand. "Where do we start?"

* * *

In the time that had past, Gem presented her disk and showed the data she had been able to pull from Flynn's private library as well from the other places she had searched for the information to repair a User. During that time Kive of the Isos lent his skills. One of the first things they were able to do was remove the damaged garment from Anna's shoulder as they started to work on her injury. What they saw changed their world.

The Mini Bit arrow had not completed its journey through the User's shoulder. It was with concern as the User told them to feel the back of her shoulder to find where it was lodged and make a cut to remove it from the other side. Several programs had to be used to roll Anna onto her side while Gem bit her lip as she made the cut into the User's skin. Making an X patterned incision and slowly peeling back the layers revealed the still glowing round. Taking the pincers out of the kit Gem worked her way to extract it. What Surprised Gem was cutting User skin was no different than cutting the outer code of a Program during the Games prepping process. Once out the User seemed to be in less pain.

Kive stated that from the research Flynn had done that syncing an Identity disk to the User then repairing the code would allow from the damage to be regenerated when the disk was synced again.

Gem knew that this was where things would get hard as she took out the blank disk and mounting harness and placed it on Anna's back. The harness attachment process took the longest as it connected with the User's form as most Disk mounts were done standing up. Once the rig had linked itself to the User's body, Gem attached the Disk and waited for the sync. A female program off in the corner started to pray, Gem silently joined her as the disk started to light up.

Removing the disk and handing it to Kive, he activated the source code diagnostics and stopped code.

"Gem... Do you see this...?" Kive said looking at the Helix floating out of the disk. Gem nodded. Then taking his disk from his back he activated it and showed his own source code. "This is my source code... And this is her's..."

Gem noticed something as by instinct she activated her own code diagnostics and saw a completely different coding layout. ""How come User Source Code looks like Iso?"

"I don't know... But see here... Looks like the coding is... similar in behavior." Kive said as Anna started to speak.

"A T G C... A proteins link to the T proteins and G likewise to C. They are in three letter groups." Anna said giving information. "The U proteins are at sites that replace the T for replication during the division process." Gem and Kive started to understand the information Anna was presenting to them.

"Gotcha... The codec is in sequences of three, so using an algorithm I can replicate and repair the coding." Kive said as Anna lay back down.

"Good... While you all hacking my DNA... Don't give me another head." Anna said resting as work proceeded on her disk.

Anna hurt as listened to the room. Between Gem and her fellow captive working on her Disk... There were sounds of praying... Murmurs of talking... And a soft had caressing her face. Looking up she saw the face of a young girl with the whitest hair. The two pigtails she had made her look cute. That was when a woman with a green hood stood by her.

"You should let her rest as they repair her." Green hood said to White Pigtails.

"Yes... but..."

"Hey... I'm here and I don't mind." The two looked down at her in shock. "Hey... Could you tell me about this place?" Anna bit her lips to keep them moist. "Anything to keep my mind busy and off the 'repair' as you call it."

"What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about Flynn... not the religious stuff... tell me about his time here."

"Why do you want to know about that?" Pigtails said looking at Anna.

"Oh... to learn about a programmer is to learn about the system they created."

"Okay..." Pigtails said as she started to tell the tale.

* * *

Gem watched as Anna relaxed some as she listen to the program tell the backstory of the Grid. It was strange, but it sort of made sense. Gem had to learn a bit about the User's system, and now this User was learning about her world. Looking over to see Kive's work on Anna's disk made her want to talk to him some.

"How did you learn to code like that?" Gem said knowing that a bit of information about the Program helping them would be beneficial to her to getting Anna out of here.

"I worked with the Creator some on a project, pertaining to how the Isos came about." Kive said as he sorted through the various... proteins... if Gem knew the terms for User Base code. "Mostly he seemed to be learning more from us than we from him. It was strange... But in his case, he kept mentioning the name Jordan and repairing her if he had access to this knowledge." There was a long pause. "I think this is what Flynn wanted to do to some User." Gem looked down at Anna's now bandaged wound.

"Jordan was the love of his life... She... Ceased function when she was involved in an accident." Gem said looking over at the code. "I think that permanent derezolution doesn't come close to describing what happened to her."

"Jordan was a User?" Gem nodded in confirmation to this. "So... This kinda of explains why Flynn was so interested in learning how the Isos were able to rewrite their code without any permanent damage."

"Maybe... he hoped that if he could learn how the Isos could do what you are doing now... Maybe this is what he was working on... Teaching us how to repair Users. Maybe even write them." Gem thought hard about this.

"Write Users?" Kive said looking at her.

"Well, think about it... They write Us... Well Basics... but you guys... The Isos were not created by Users... so... what created you?" Gem looked at the two spiraling helix codes. "Maybe the same being the created the Users. I am just grasping at bits here."

"Well I don't know either. But I at least finished working on the data." Kive said compiling the disk before shutting down the display.

"Okay... Let's see if this works." Gem reached over and tapped Anna on the shoulder. "Anna... We are going to reattach your disk with the repairs. Hopefully it should repair the damage done to your system." With that Gem and several Programs helped roll Anna onto her side as the Disk was placed on the User's back.

What happened next, Gem would never forget for the rest of her life.

Gem knew from her time working in the Armory underneath of the Games Arena that an identity disk sync only took a brief moment. What happened here took longer as the eyes flickered then... Anna's body lurched as she screamed in pain. The amount of energy bursting from Anna's fingers as she twisted back and forth in agony was incredible. This was when several of the Programs in the cell started to pull away from her as the circuitry around the room started to glow. The wall next to Anna started to crack and heave backwards. Even the transparent celling where the guards were watching them from started to bubble and derezz in sections. That was when several guards dropped the door and rushed in.

Knocking Gem out of the way the guards reached for Anna, and in a spasm Anna's hand hit one on the arm and was instantly derezzed. Another Guard got kicked by Anna as she screamed again and was turned to pixels where he stood as the energy was sucked out of him. Grabbing a vial from her pack she popped it open and poured it into Anna's mouth.

The liquid energy reacted like an explosion as programs started to fall into sleep mode. Several of the guards who were still outside decided to close the cell fearing that if whatever was taking place got out, they would be next. So containing it was their best option.

Gem felt herself start to fade as grabbed another vial and downed it into her mouth and kissed Anna so that she could force the fluid into the User's mouth.

A Flood of images came forth.

Anna early in her compile... Playing with some figures

Anna riding some great beast... and laughing in joy.

Anna... Naked in a bed with a male User...

Anna... Seeing Quorra scared... out of place.

A battle... Quorra using some vintage disks to fend off her opponents.

Anna turning towards her after some feat of agility... So how about joining the Extreme Freebie team I am part of.

Running across a field to catch a disk flying through the air and enjoying it.

Feeling Jet kiss her... Warmth love...

A moment later Gem fell backwards as the energy in the room seemed to go dark. Gem looked to see Anna had stopped moving.

They eyes looked vacant... dull...

"No... No.. No no no no...NO NOOOO!" Gem yelled as she slammed her fist onto Anna's chest. "I am not going to lose another User... I know I am not worthy." Gem slammed her fist again to the User's inactive body. "I know I have not been the best Program." Gem slammed her fist again. "I know I have done some bad things." Another slam. "But I am not going to lose another person that means so much to another." Another Slam. "I won't let what happened to Sam and his Creator happen to this User as well." With a final defiant slam Gem's fist hit Anna's chest so hard that it felt like Gem was on the verge of breaking off her hand at its wrist. There was a lurch as a breath was taken in from Anna as she coughed several times.

"You're functional!" Anna seemed more concerned on breathing as Gem latched onto the red haired User and started to cry. "I thought I lost you there!" Through the coughs Anna did her best to move her arm to pat Gem on the back. Helping pull Anna up against the now cracked wall, Gem watched as the experimentally took some normal breaths, the occasional glitch as her system started to come back onto sync.

"What happened?" Anna said between coughs.

"Your reboot was a little harder than we first thought." Gem said as the Programs in the room looked scared.

"Yeah..." Anna coughed a few times. "I got that feeling too." Anna closed and blinked her eyes a few times to see if they were still functioning. "What happened in here?"

"Like I said, your reboot was a bit harder than I first though." Gem moved to sit down next to Anna.

"Okay... Well. I had the strangest dream that I was with three other girls in spandex and we were using lasers to take off his pants, and some other weird stuff." Anna said as she entered into a rest mode.

Gem realized that the memory transfer must have gone both ways. The programs in the room that were now coming back online looked at the scene before them and realized that a miracle had taken place as they gathered around the two females. Gem checked on the work she had done, the garment hadn't been repaired but the User's flesh was now patched and flawless. Kive who was getting up off of the floor and brushing pixels off of himself looked no worse for wear as programs started to get back on their feet as their energies returned to them.

With that Gem entered into rest mode and let her system recharge some.

For the time being, they were not getting out of here... Well until they had a plan and some rest. Gem for the first time experienced the memory of smelling freshly cut grass as she rested next to Anna and she grinned.

* * *

Let me know what you think? Please send a review.

Meadow is based on the creepy girl from the iPhone game _Dark Meadow_ and the tunic girl is based on Ren from _Fragile Dreams_.

The song that Jet references is _Stacy's Mom_ by Fountains of Wayne. I just figured that Jet seeing Yori and Gary seeing Quorra's mom Radia in that "swimwear" dress was needed for the levity.

Kive being introduced in this chapter is meant to hint at things to come.

More next chapter.

Hearns


	16. Chapter 15

Sorry about taking so long to update, but I have been busy with Classes and all. Though I have been hitting a lot of Video game art lately and listening to the 8-Bit Radio podcast to stay in the mood while writing this.

Be warned this first section here is a little graphic but it does get the point across about what took place on the Grid before Sam arrived and the events of what happened during the Rerezzing.

Hearns

* * *

Magic and Programs Chapter 15

* * *

Anna looked around the glowing white room she was in, and knew she was in an armory. She couldn't explain how she knew that, but she knew it was an armory. Looking down at her body Anna noticed the skin tight bodysuit she was wearing seemed to be part of her as it glowed in various places and felt like she was wearing it like a wetsuit without anything underneath it. That was when a person wearing the same type of bodysuit entered the room.

"Gem..." The woman said with her raven black hair done up in a bun on the back of her head. "You... Glitch you..." Anna moved backwards. "You know that we all had an agreement. We freed those prisoners and you put them in communication with your Zuse contact." The woman said as she took her hands and shoved Anna backwards.

"I did what I could." Anna said but it felt like it wasn't her speaking.

"Yes... and tricking the Son of the Creator... What part of the plan was that?" the dark haired woman grabbed Anna's wrist and spun her around. Then there was the sound of something locking under her. Anna looked down to see her feet had been locked in place on the floor.

"I did what I felt was right." Anna looked around to see that this woman was still angry at her.

"Right as for Zuse... Gem you were supposed to set up the meeting. Get the Glitching User and help us kick Clu out of this system."

"Serenda..." Anna spoke and realized that her voice was auto tuned.

"Gem, I know that you got derezzed with that opportunistic slob Zuse... and for some strange reason that only the Creator knows, you got you're behind rerezzed and sent back here to the Grid. That makes me sick." The words stung hard as Anna was starting to put the pieces of information together. "You want people to trust you... After what you did!" With that Anna felt the room grow dark. "You have to earn that trust again. You have lost that trust with me." Serenda said as she walked behind Anna who was realizing that she was in Gem's body and whatever was happening was going to be bad as she felt something twisted free from her back.

"Serenda, what are you doing?" Anna realized that whatever was happen to Gem she would be experiencing soon at the hands of this Serenda person.

"Treating you like any other program sent to the games." With that Serenda's finger ignited like a blowtorch. Anna raised her hand in defense as Serenda took her finger and dragged it down the side of Anna/Gem's chest. It took Anna a moment to realize that the torch wasn't hurting her skin as she watched in shock as Serenda drag her torch finger down the side of her body all the way down to her feet. A moment later as Serenda came up and repeated the same motion along the opposite side of her body that Anna started to realize that she was being stripped naked.

"Why are you doing this?" Gem said panicked

"You don't deserve to wear the garments of a Siren." With that even the heels that Anna/Gem was wearing were gone as she stood on the platform naked. Anna saw that a small hole in the floor had opened up and sucked the now cut strips of cloth down into it.

"I am sorry!" Gem pleated as Serenda walked in front of her and took a disk off of her back and with a humming glow held it up to Gem's neck.

"Sorry..." There was a chuckle from the woman. "Sorry, she says..." Serenda said as she brought a hand to her face. "You know... I should use my own disk to crack you into pixels..." There was a long pause before she remounted the disk on her back. "but no... you probably would be rerezzed someplace else." Serenda said taking a few steps back and headed over to a wall terminal.

"What are you doing?" Gem said worried fearing something worse was going to happen to her. There were stories that Clu had kept Grid Bugs under the Arena for Programs to battle against for their lives. Was this what Serenda was going to do, open one of the cages that kept these being in and unleash it upon her. Gem though never fully religious till recently, started to pray to the Users to protect her or at least lessen her punishment for her past transgressions against the Flynn The Creator and the Son of Flynn. Then the lights to the Armory started to shut down as the staging area was put into sleep mode. The lights started to click off as the foot locks in the center of the room remain lit providing the only light in the room other than her own circuits on her bare flesh.

"Nothing..." With that Serenda walked away from the terminal. "You want Programs to feel for you... then be worth something to someone. Everything has a price... Even friendships sister." With that Serenda stopped at the door and slammed Gem's/Anna's disk into the wall impaling it chest level before walking out as the last of the lights went out leaving Gem in darkness.

"Serenda... Don't leave me." Gem said pleading.

"You should have thought about that before you betrayed the Users, Gem. Me... I am going to the Outland colonies to await the return of the Users. Good Bye." With that Serenda left the room as Gem started to cry as the staging area door closed behind her.

"Sam Flynn... Son of the Creator... Why did you bring be back?" Gem/Anna saw memories of the event replay themselves in the hours that passed before another Siren found Gem and helped release her from the ankle locks in the floor. The timeout from Hell, made Gem think of her past actions and who her true friends were. Mostly she thought of her own actions over the past cycles. The only good things she had done other than aid in freeing the prisoners to start a revolt against Clu was giving one word of advice to Sam Flynn. Survive.

Was this her punishment? To learn to Survive! Survive to what?

With that Anna started to understand Gem's motivation and her state of mind.

Gem wasn't a bad person; she just made a series of bad decisions that got innocent people killed.

No wonder Sam was so protective of her. He saw a bit of himself in her. He saw what would have happened if he hadn't had support system he did. No wonder the girl was so scared.

That and the images of Anna being pictured as a warrior goddess who dished out vengeance upon Programs who betrayed their Users for even the smallest infraction.

No wonders the poor girl was scared witness of what would happen to her next.

Then there were the visions of things that Gem didn't understand.

Wait... Gem had memories from the future in her head. . . How was that possible?

And how did Dave Stutler figure into this?

Opening her eyes Anna felt something sticky on her fingers as she awoke from the dream/memory download.

Bringing her fingers up to see them... she saw blood and promptly freaked out in fear.

* * *

Tabru had watched the User rest. Between telling the User the earliest stories of the Grid's origins and being witness to the User's reboot she thought nothing would surprise her anymore. As the User slowly came out of her sleep mode and felt her hand drag across the red energy fluids that they functioned off of... The User entered into tactical mode as she sprung up with a bolt of speed.

The User seemed to be doing a quick threat assessment to orient her location. Then with an action she started to bolt for the still shielded door of the pit cell and tried to escape through it. With a large shock the User got flung backwards and was sprawled across the floor. Looking scared the User scampered backwards until she hit a corner of the cell.

"Where am I?" The User said scanning the room as higher logic functions started to kick in.

"In a Pit Cell." Tabru said concerned as the User started to calculate the threats and the non-threats in the room as she started to see who was looking at her. Then looking down had her hand the question came out.

"Whose blood is this?" Tabru realized that the User might be losing a few sections of data from her reboot.

"Yours..." With that the User checked herself to realize that the same red fluid that had come from her still had covered her garments. Quickly the User removed several layers of her outer coded garments to view the holes that had been cut into them and at the sticky sections of her own skin.

"User Anna... it is good to see you up and running." Gem said standing up as the User touched the exposed flesh around some sort of under-coded garment.

"You are Gem..." the User said as she sat down on the sleeping platform as her processors started to come up to speed.

"Yes... Is the repair job that Kive and I did satisfactory?" Gem said touching the User hesitantly

"Yeah..." The User said softly as the weight of the situation started to hit her.

"We nearly lost you there for a moment while you rebooted." The User looked at the Siren scared "Mostly during your reboot, you practically nearly tore that wall apart with the overflow of power you emitted." Gem said motioning to the wall behind the User.

"Okay... so this is not a dream." The User seemed to be functioning on a level where most of her fragmented memories seemed to be coming back.

"You are correct." Gem said kneeling in front of the User.

"So... How long was I out?" Gem looked around the room before she spoke.

"About one Grid hour." The User looked down at the fragments of pixels that were left from one of the destroyed Guards that had come in during her reboot.

"Okay..." the User closed her eyes and shook her head in an attempt to bring more functions online.

"Many of the Programs here want to know what you plan to do next." Gem said concerned.

"I don't know... So far I am just trying to figure out what is going on." Anna said looking around the room some more before looking over at Kive the Iso Technician that had aided in the User's reboot. Sweet, the Bostrum Iso who had sensed that Anna was a User when she had been dumped into the cell like the rest of the captured programs from the battle between the Liberators and the Clus'. That was when Anna looked directly at Tabru herself. "Hey... you are the girl that told me about the history of the Grid..." Tabru nodded. "Thanks..."

"Thank You... User..." Tabru said worried as Anna reached down to examine a pixel of a derezzed Program as she shook her head a few times in a vain attempt to speed up her reboot.

"Whoa... Talk about weird dreams... I swear, I had a dream where I thought I was some sort of female program who had royally screwed up and got stripped naked in some armory by her very pissed off sister. This was before she got found by another one of her fellow programs and set free." Gem looked away in shame...

"You saw that..." Gem said unable to bring her eyes back to the User.

"Wait... You mean that happened..." Then the data fell into place. "Those were your memories!" Gem looked up pleading in her eyes.

"Yes... I accept any punishment that you deem appropriate for my crimes against your people." Tabru watched as the Siren braced herself for Derezzing. The User reached out and moved off of the bed and knelt next to the Program.

"I am not going to punish you for what you did... Hell... I don't know what was stranger, experiencing your memories or knowing that they actually took place." Anna said looking at the program. "Given all that happened... Your people were desperate... Zuse... I know was scum... the type of scum that springs up whenever things go to Hell... But you don't have to blame yourself... You have paid for your crimes many times over... I mean... dying in an explosion knowing that you sided with the wrong person... You are trying to make amends when you came back." With that Anna took Gem into her arms and hugged her. "Just let it out." With that the Siren cried, screamed and held onto the User as hundreds of cycles of suffering and emotional pain poured out of her. "It's going to be okay..." Seeing the User rub her hands up and down the Program's back was amazing. Several other Programs in the cell watched as the Siren was redeemed in the arms of this User as she felt all of the suffering that had taken place was set free from the Siren's silicon soul.

* * *

Anna sat on the floor after Gem had her emotions flow out after her cry-fest. Gem seemed better from the experience. The biggest breakthrough was when Gem accepted that she like Anna was a flawed creature... That mistakes did take place. Only when that you accepted that you made the mistake and tried to make it right... Surviving the experience and learning from it would make you a better person in the end was the only thing anyone could do.

Well, for Gem... Saving Anna and accepting that she wasn't going to die by some act of divine vengeance being delivered by some other User did calm the Siren Program down somewhat. Through the nightmarish images of Marvin eating her after witnessing him via a video conference call to the Real World would cause a group a miscreant Programs take a dump in their shorts was enough to be in the category of a horror movie.

Talk about nightmare fetish fuel.

But considering that never seeing dog before and only seeing a creature with a slobbering mouth full of teeth would scare anyone. Well, it was understandable. Given all of the memories that Anna had somehow downloaded from the girl, it sort of made sense. Marve did look scary when you were face to face to his ugly mug. But he was harmless once he got to know you and add to that he was purse sized to boot. Here poor little Marve was seen as being Cthulhu incarnate.

Though looking through Gem's memories, Gem had done some things very logically in trying to free her world from the Monster that was Clu. Half of the things that Quorra had spoken about during the memory presentation were the water downed; Reader Digest Version of what Clu did to this place. Somehow holding Gem and just letting the girl know that Anna didn't blame her for what she had done was what was needed.

After what seemed like a long time of silence Anna just let Gem know that she knew of all of Gem's past actions, including the entire thing with Serenda being angry with her. The loud gulp from Gem was priceless considering the brain download between the two of had taken place. Though on the other hand having memories of Gem humping her brains out to the Sam Flynn look-a-like was strange.

Only when Gem had said something about Jamie Soong behind the bleachers in high school, Anna knew that Gem was confused about the images she had received from the weird mind meld incident from Anna's own memories as she was about Gem's.

"Gem... Look at me." Anna said wiping away the tears from the program. "You have made mistakes. You can't go back in time and put them right, but you can learn from them so they won't happen again. Understand. You are just as fallible as me. An imperfect creature made by other imperfect creatures going back ages. All we can do is Survive and Learn." Gem nodded. "Good." With that Anna rose up from the floor and helped Gem up as well. "Okay. Now all we have to do if figure out what the Heck is going on here." Anna said as she slowly stayed a good distance away from the force field on the cell door and looked down to see several cells across from them. A program came to look through the cell door then another in the cell next to it. A guard passed by the cell and one look at Anna had the guy practically pissing his pants as he bolted past in fear.

That was when one of the programs in the cell across from Anna started to speak up.

"Are you one of the Users?" Anna had to look through the distortion of the force field to make out that the other person was Female and wearing some sort of vintage Grid arena uniform that looked to as form fitting as Gem's own garments and with white spiky hair to boot. Well a buxom Laura Croft version 1.0 grade female give the size of those hooters. Whatever it was about this place, whenever it came to female wardrobe, the visible appearance of the curves of the female bust lines went up a few cup sizes from their normal size just from the visible cut of the garments.

"What if I am? Right now, figuring out what's going on in this crazy dream might be real important in getting out of this mess." That was when Anna saw Eddie Dillanger standing in the cell. "Dillanger... how the heck did you get in here?" Anna said looking at the image of a lead programmer wearing a glowing purple suit.

"You know my User?" That was when Anna winced.

"Yeap... Old Dill Pickle definitely put his fingers into this pie." Anna said as she butted her head into the door frame.

"Anna what is it?" Gem said moving up to Anna. "You know that Program's user?"

"Yeah..." Anna said somewhat drained. "Yeah... Dillanger learned about the Grid before me and the others got zapped here." There was a pause before Anna turned towards the program. "Hey... could you list what you were sent in here to find?" Anna said looking back at the Program in the cell opposite to her.

"System study of Project Bifrost, to learn its functions, to study the files on the system pertaining to its origins, and find out why subject Dillanger, Edward Senior was listed on personnel to be recruited for project." The program said concerned that this was a being of legend.

"Well, I think you are day late and a dollar short, because before coming to this realm, Old Dillanger Pickle and Alan Freaking One himself along with myself and a few others got a crash course on project Bifrost." There was a pause before Anna continued. "It has to do with the Grid and the other half of the beacon." Anna said giving what information she knew to this program version of Dillianger. "Now if you know of an exit out of this place or at least how we can get these cell doors open. Just tell me." With that the Laura Croft program spoke.

"User..." Anna knew that given what she was, she wasn't going to outrun that title.

"Call me Anna, User is what I am, not who I am."

"Anna... The guards rotate through these cells at irregular intervals. Though they do average about every ten to thirty nano-cycles since I have been here." Anna watched as several programs shifted behind the Laura Croft program.

"What's your name?" Anna called out.

"Mercury One Seven Eight." The Program called out.

"Alright, do you have anyone injured in there?" Anna said as she looked over at the Green Iso Program Kive.

"Several..." Mercury called out.

"You..." Anna looked over at Eddie's double.

"Several in here as well, I have been able to get a few operational. I had to do a repurpose on one's operating code, but I got her up and running for the time being. But she still needs some more work."

"Okay..." Anna looked over at Kive and brought him over to the cell "door" and continued to speak. "Mercury, ah..." Anna hadn't asked for the name of Eddie's double.

"My designation is Ger." The program said stating his name to Anna and to Kive.

"Ger..." Anna rolled over the name in her head before she got back to her purpose. "Okay, you two work with..." Anna motioned over to the Green Hooded Hispanic looking program that helped treat her wounds.

"Kive... My name is Kive." The Green coded Bosomite said to the User and the programs in the other two cells.

"Kive here and start working on repairing the programs in your cells, the quicker we get everyone up to speed and fixed here, the better odds we have in getting out of here." Anna looked down to see a red disk that had slid under the bed area. The main reason she hadn't seen it earlier was due to her own blood concealing it. Reaching down and picking it up the red disk came alive rolling through images before her.

"Gem..." Anna motioned for the Siren to come over. "…do you recognize any of these land marks?" Gem nodded. "Looks like we have a plan forming." Anna said as she started to scroll through the data on the floating screen before her. Maybe there was something on this guy's disk would explain why she and the others had been targeted when arriving here on the Grid.

* * *

Jet watched as the younger representation of his mother worked her way through various sets of computer data. It was strange... Yet, Jet was getting some idea of what his mom was like in her youth. Maybe it was the reason that Flynn had put a digital copy of her in this place. If that was true, then there might be a digital copy of Sam's mom in here. With that Jet leaned over to assist Yori.

"Yori?" Jet paused before he continued. "How much do you know about the person you are based on?" Yori turned to look at Jet.

"What do you mean Jet." It had taken some effort for these programs to be convinced not to call Becky, himself and Gary Users, but being called by just their names was important and given that his divinity status was creeping out the three of them since that Meadow girl and her friend Ren had freaked out from Jet punching the wall in anger at Anna being captured by hostile Programs here on the Grid.

"You know... The person you are based on... I think you called her your User." Jet was concerned it was going to be Sam's father's name being brought but what she said next got his attention.

"Oh, you mean Laura Prime." It took a moment as Jet remembered his mom's login name from the shock of hearing it.

"Mo... Laura is your User?" It made sense in a way given that Tron was based of his Dad, why wouldn't Flynn have made a copy of his mom.

"Yes... Do you know her?" Yori said surprised.

"Well, you might say she and Alan sort of created me." Jet said giving the program some facts about himself.

"You were created by Alan One and Laura Prime." Yori said in shock.

"Yeah... Trust me, there were a lot of expectations about me going into the family business, but considering that I tended to lean more to the technology side of things, I'm more like my Mom… Laura." Jet paused for a moment before he continued. "For Sam, since he lost his grandparents." Yori gave him a strange confused look wondering what he was talking about Jet decided to elaborate. "Flynn's creators Creators."

"Oh..." Yori said getting the idea.

"Well after he lost both of his creators and the loss of those helping take care of him before he came to live with me and my folks. Sam has always felt that he is about to lose what was closest to him. That is probably why he is so protective of Quorra. That is probably why Sam was carrying a gun and was ready to fight to protect her when Quorra was taken to the hospital." Jet looked out the window to the Grid outside.

"Quorra means that much to him?" Yori started to realize much of what was going on in the User World was similar to the Grid and in a way it comforted her in knowing that.

"Yeah... Probably the reason that Sam feels so driven to repair the Grid. This was Quorra's home and the place that his father spent so much time at during the later years of his life." Jet sighed as he took in the landscape. "Wow. When Sam's old man built something, he sure went out." looking out the window, Yori saw what Jet was looking at…. The Beacon.

"Yes the Beacon was created by Flynn as a gateway between both of our worlds. For many Programs since Flynn went missing felt that he abandoned us when it went dark or Clu had done something to prevent him from returning to us." There was a sigh before Yori continued. "Many of the programs didn't know that Flynn had been trapped here on the Grid. But since it was re-lit when the Son of Flynn came through the portal nearly a cycle back, The Beacon has regained some of it symbolism of being a sign of something better. Something larger than ourselves in the greater scheme of things and as a sign of hope for all that live here."

"Yeah, it would have helped if Sam's old man had a panic button rigged or at least a dead man switch to alert people of where he was and give an emergency procedure list of what to do to get him out of here if that ever went dark." Jet said looked back over to Yori. "But that is in the world of could have been." Jet sighed. "I'm just glad that Sam was able to see his father one last time before he died and gained some greater purpose in his life."

"Yes and the Programs here seeing the Creator and his son do battle with Clu have inspired many to start rebuilding the Grid to it's former greatness." Yori commented as she tapped through a few subroutines to find an obscure communications protocol. "User Jet." Yori called up as she tapped to get his attention. "I believe I found some early communications protocol to your world." Jet looked at it and after a moment hugged her.

"It ain't pretty, but it should work at sending a message to Sam and my Dad." With that Jet went to work to compose a message of One-hundred and Twenty characters or less.

"So, tell me a little about what Alan One and Laura Prime are like in person." Yori said as Jet grinned.

"Well, Laura, kinda a lot like you." Jet chewed on the concept. "Correction... She is a whole like you, but she has gained some wisdom over the years." Jet decided that composing the message would have to be short and sweet to convey the information they needed. "Hold on, I am going to send the message."

89 Q, J,B,G SAFE ON GRID, NEED WX REPORT ON LW CLOUD COV 2 FND ANNA. TRK SPL ON HER FRM B. BADGUYS HV HER. NEAR BEACON, FIX COMM CODEC, NEED HELP. J.B.

With the few characters he had she sent the message and waited for the reply. Yori looked at the message to see the weird character layout.

"Such a strange message. What does 89 mean?" Yori looked at Jet.

"Sam... 89 became his moniker for the year that his father disappeared. Since then, anything since then is pretty much seen as being affiliated with him in the search for his father." Yori started to realize what Jet was talking about.

"Could you tell me some of Sam's search for his father?" Yori said as she listened to Jet tell her about Sam's life. By the time the message from the other side came through, she had started to tell Jet of her own search for Tron when he had gone missing all those cycles ago.

* * *

Becky looked over the information that this world had on the Human Race. Most of the information was second and third had hearsay, but given what they knew of humanity, the Programs/People here thought that all Humans were like Flynn. Boy, were they going to be in for a huge shock when they learned the truth. Given that the four humans here on the Grid were on the clock, Becky knew that if they were to save Anna and the rest of the captured Programs, they would have to mount a rescue operation.

Looking around the conservation deck of the flying aircraft Carrier they were on. This place felt more like a city than anything else. Probably due to the fact this thing was probably docked to the support platform it was attached to. Most of this place wouldn't past an OSHA inspection given all of the hazards around here, but considering this place had been built along the lines of a video game program. . . Well it sort of made sense.

Meadow and Ren, the two programs she had run into earlier with Gary and Jet had taken Gary on a tour of this place. So far Becky had she spent some time with a graphic art Program named Pixel Five to draw a circle of Merlin on one of the upper levels so that she could practice her newfound powers so that she wouldn't harm another innocent as she had when she had arrived here. After witnessing the destruction she had inadvertently done with her powers, the sooner she got them under control, better odds she could help in the fight ahead with the Morganinans starting to circle around in the Real World.

For the time being, just waiting for Jet to communicate between here and the Real World was the key thing. If they could get an update on the Weather here on the Grid, then hopefully the locate spell that Becky placed on Anna they could mount a rescue operation. Becky looked down at her watch to see that the second had stopped moving and realized that her sense of time was the only thing giving her hope that Dave wasn't pulling his hair out of his head.

With that Becky decided to throw an energy blast from her hands as she watched lights in the distance come closer to this coastline military base. Someone was off-roading and looked to be having fun. Fun Becky wished to experience alongside her boyfriend Dave. The fun of a Parisian Breakfast, a day walking Paris soaking up the experiences of being alive with the man she wished to marry.

* * *

Tia had heard rumors about there being a base out here near the Beacon. There had been reports that the rebels had seized a carrier from Clu's forces and had placed it by the shoreline to act as protection to prevent any further attack on the User World. Now seeing this structure and the Beacon beyond, her mission became clear. The idea of getting into the carrier scared the crap out of her as much of the structure looked to be soft blue in color as the red coding was being reformatted out slowly.

Tia had fled to the outlands and had discovered the under-code hiding places the Isos had used for safety during their journey towards Tron City. Over time Tia and other programs fleeing the Clu Regime had taken up sanctuary in these locations.

During the Purge, Clu had only found a few of those places in Tron City, but not the extending tunnels that led into the out lands as they were filled with perils. Those had been sealed off by various programs over the cycles to prevent Clu from finding the sanctuary. But now, they served as a way to watch the City as Tia had when the Beacon had come to life again.

For many it was the only place they could exist without being derezzed given their functions and beliefs. Now, given the destruction of Clu, the programs there had decided to stay hidden for the time being. But many who knew the paths the Isos had used so long ago had come to seek out the hidden knowledge that many believed had lead the Creator to want to protect the last Iso for over a thousand cycles. It was the only logical reason that the Creator would turn his back on his original mission to create perfection. What if he had found it buried in the Iso's code or experiences of their lives.

Over time as the Isos had moved into the city and eventually creating their own places and dwellings after they had first appeared on the Grid. With that the under code locations were still there and whatever the Creator had found there, had changed him. A Change so powerful that wielding such power without deep contemplation of what would take place afterwards would mean the complete destruction to all life on the Grid.

With the return of the Users and the attack in the center of Tron City, Tia had to get help as she had gotten reports from one of the scouts into the city that a User had been captured and taken by surviving Clu forces. Over the last millicycle she had been updated on the location of where this User had been taken. Now she had to contact the User World to get help and from the reports she had been able to gather was that the Administrators had put a contact system near the Beacon.

Collapsing up the mini-light runner into her baton, Tia sprinted over the terrain to the base and fired off a grapple onto the ledge and wrenched herself up. She hoped that she hadn't been seen approaching given the bolt of energy that she had seen fired from the upper levels. Maybe that was where she could find the Users and tell them what she had found out.

In the name of Flynn she hoped that she wasn't too late.

* * *

Gary had spent the last hour being equipped with an identity disk on his back and being shown around this settlement by the two young programs that Becky had run into in the hallway where Becky, Jet and himself had been taken after being rushed out of the city. Given that the three of them were probably seen as high priority targets by the Red Programs, laying low for the time being was the only they could do. Jet was working on getting word out to the Real World, and Becky was doing her best to control those powers she had. Him... Well he was getting the Quorra crash course on the Grid.

"_Flynn's Legacy_, is a Rectifier class vessel." Meadow said as she guided him along the main open deck. "Though not fully operational, she does house a considerable amount of Recognizers, Grid Tanks, Light Jets and other vehicles." Gary watched as Meadow moved around. Considering that she was wearing a bodysuit that looked like a cross between a wet-suit and unitard that had been sprayed with balloon latex she looked like any girl that Gary would have liked to meet in the real world. Ren, who had put on some shoes, had a figure with some curves to it considering that she was wearing a dress that essentially a cross between a medical down and two cooking aprons that had been sewn together forming the front and back of the garment. The fact that Ren looked to be not wearing any undergarments forced Gary with most of his will to keep his eyes well above her waist line so he wouldn't have an erection in front of his girl. He would give anything to give this girl a swimsuit or some toupee tape to keep the flimsy garment in place so that he could enjoy the company of these two girls. "Gary are you functioning correctly?" Meadow said with concern seeing that he was focusing his attention on things other than the tour she was giving.

"Sorry, just trying to wrap my mind around this world." Gary said as he took off his trench coat and placed it over Rens' body. Ren looked at him wondering what she had done to deserve his garment. "Here Ren. you looked cold." Ren looked up at Gary as she slid her arms through the extra-long sleeves as almost on cue a blast of wind came through the flight deck and the jacket flapped a little as Gary finished tying the jacket's belt about her body.

"Thank you." Ren said walking up beside Gary and giving him a hug. Gary reached up and reciprocated back feeling the circular mass on her back and realized Ren was a bit young for his taste, but would be a good friend. Somewhere in his mind Gary thought that Ren would look good in a traditional Japanese Kimono given how his jacket formed around her. Maybe if Sam would allow him to come back here, he would bring Ren one and maybe Meadow something as well.

"Yeah... Well, you two have been nice in showing me around." Gary said placing a hand against the leg of a now blue coded Recognizer. "Man... I must have seen a ton of images and models of this thing when I was younger."

"Yes... They were often used as air support and as bombers during the Clu Regime. Now they are mostly used to provide security for the complex." Meadow said as she moved up to Ren. "You act as if you haven't seen one of these things for real?"

"No I have not." Gary said as he turned around to look at the two girls as other programs wearing glowing patterns of Blue, White, and Green on top of either a standard all black or all white garments shuffled around the flight deck. "Listen I know that you two are trying to impress me, but I feel that..." Gary stopped cold as something fell to the floor as a figure darted into the shadows. "did you hear that?" Ren turned around to see nothing, but she had heard the noise.

"Do you think someone has snuck on board?" Meadow said pulling off her disk. Gary watched as Ren tried to get to her disk through his jacket but quickly Gary had an idea.

"Yeah." Gary said as he took Ren by the arm and pulled her into the Recognizer. "Ren, can you make this thing stand?" Ren nodded. "Okay, I need you to be our eyes as me and Meadow check out what made that noise." Meadow nodded in agreement as Ren made her way to the flight controls and placed her feet on the foot pads. With the ship taking its flight form Gary and Meadow moved along the sides of a what looked to be a tanker truck. Gary looked at the disk and knew that though it wasn't oscillating lines like Meadow's, given its weight it would probably give a person a nice knot on the head.

That was when he saw an arm holding against the tanker and spinning the figure around when he approached he got a look into two of the most innocent eyes he had ever seen in his life.

"I'm sorry... I." Meadow came around the tanker to see the girl.

"Glitch... It is just some Iso." Meadow said placing her disk on her back.

"Wait, she is an Iso like Quorra?" Gary said looking at the girl who looked to be no older than Eighteen in his eyes.

"I'm..." the girl was a bit scared, but Gary let her go as he backed up.

"Sorry... I know..." Gary realized that he probably had another groupie that was starting to gather around him. It was like he was a Rock Star in this place. "So, what's your..." Gary started to say when he got creamed to the floor and road like a surfboard with such force by a black garbed ninja program with minimum lighting with a white four dot "T" on his chest.

"You will not harm her!" The voice growled as Gary felt his body come to a stop.

"Trace... he wasn't going to hurt me." The program girl said as she knelt down by this program who had a whirring disk at Gary's neck.

"Ellie, If anything happened to you. . ." Trace spoke as Gary got the clear idea that Ellie the Iso he had found snooping on him was on the 'don't mess with my sister or else my ninja big brother is going to kill you!' list of things in front of him. That and the firm knee across his kidneys spoke volumes as well.

"Yes Trace. I, Gary Hammer, Son of Roy Kleinberg of Los Angeles, California, Earth will not harm Ellie of..." Gary swallowed hard as the blade moved closer before Ellie took her hand and guided the blade away from his neck.

"User." The word hung in the air as the program withdrew his disk. As the Trace stood Ren called out on the speaker from the Recognizer.

"Guys... I think you have trouble." Ren said from her vantage point.

"I think it is a little too late Ren." Meadow called out as she looked up at her friend at the controls.

"Sorry... It took me a while to get the speaker working, but I see someone who just sprinted across the flight deck and stunned two programs." Ren said pointing down the flight deck. With that Trace jumped up to the side of the tanker truck to get a better view.

"She is right." Trace said motioning for help. "Ellie take cover!" The young Iso got the point as she climbed into a nearby armored transport. "User, you are with me." Gary didn't need to be given another statement. If this was like last time, then Trouble was heading right towards them.

* * *

Tia didn't want to harm any programs, but placing them into a state where they had to reboot would buy her time to find the Users.

That was until some Program in a recognizer had alerted her fellow programs to Tia's presence. That was when she started to be chased after by a Program with minimum lighting on his form. Quickly Tia made it to a lift up to the upper levels. That was when as she stepped off of the lift that she saw a rather bulky program who was trying his best to hold on for dear life. Getting a handhold the Program pulled himself up rather clumsily, but once up he held up his disk at the ready.

"Listen, I don't want to hurt you." The program said as he kept a good distance away from her. Tia deployed her sword and held it. Something felt different about this program but she couldn't place it.

"You will not keep me from the Users." Tia growled at the Program.

"Hey, girl... I won't keep you from my friends, but given that you have a sword pointed at me states that you intend to do some harm." The program said keeping his distance.

"I do not intend to harm them; I wish to deliver a message." Tia said as they moved into an open area.

"then what is the message?" The program said as they swung around the upper deck. That was when another program showed up who had drawn his disk. . . No disks. There were only a few programs that would fight with two disks and one of them was Rinzler.

"I will not give the message to one who might twist it to their own means." Tia said in defense as she watched both of these programs before her.

"Okay... If you want to talk them, and you wish them no harm, then why are you pointing a sword at me and my friend here?" The large program said as the double disked one stood ready to attack.

"Gary. She is one that fled to the Outlands. They trust no one, little less than ones in authority." The double disked one said to the other program.

"Trace. You could have told me this." Gary said as he looked at Tia. "So... you want to deliver a message to the Users, then what makes it so important! Are you one of the servants of Clu, because from what I have heard about this guy. I'm just glad that he is gone." Tia moved backwards at this concern. They thought that she was some messenger sent to state demands to the Users about getting something from the system or the User World.

"II am not affiliated with Clu's forces." Tia looked around to see that this had been approached all wrong. "Glitch."

"Then why are you here?" Gary said with his arms spread out to show that he wasn't going to attack her. Looking between the double disk welding program and the one trying to talk her down Tia held onto her sword.

"To Speak with the Users." Tia restated again as the lift came up again and several other security programs got off.

"Crap." Gary said as Tia decided that being surrounded wasn't the best thing for her and finding the Users would be her mission even if it cost her life. Taking a swing at Gary, Trace moved towards her unleashing his attack with his double disks. With practiced skill, Tia blocked the attacks from countless cycles of being attacked by Grid Bugs in the outlands. Sprinting past Trace she shouldered her way through the security programs as she started to run in the direction of where she had seen the energy bolt shot from.

Gary taking the chance sprinted her direction and flung his disk at her.

Raising her sword to bock the attack, the disk didn't charge at her but slid across the deck of the ship by her feet. What program didn't charge their disk before an attack? Then with full force Gary slammed into her forcing all of his weight into her small frame. Tia fought back with a free hand. That was when Gary slid the blade of the sword under his arm with the blade firmly in place he wrenched it from her grip. By this time Trace had his whirring disk by her neck.

"Yield." The voice said with a growl. At this distance Tia could see the partially visible scar on Trace's face that was hidden by his helmet.

"Go Glitch yourself!" Tia spat as she was heaved to her feet. That was when she heard Trace speak.

"User you are injured." Tia looked in the direction Trace was staring at. In that moment Tia was mortified. She had heard tales of the red functional fluid of the Users, but had never seen it firsthand. But to see her sword smeared with the sacred fluid of life, she locked up. Tia's legs collapsed from under her as she had realized what she had done.

Her vocal subroutines froze up as she tried to speak.

"I'm Alright, Trace. Just one hell of a paper cut, but I'll live." Gary said walking over to the program with her sword in hand. Looking at how scared Tia was Gary knelt down before her. "So, what is the message that you wanted do deliver to me and my friends?"

All Tia could do was be scared as she attempted to get her vocal commands working again.

"Trace, help me get her up. I think she needs a little time to calm down."

"In the name of Flynn, what have I done!" Tia said in fear as in the distance a female program walked over to Gary and saw Tia scared.

"Gary... What happened here?" The golden haired female said seeing the blood on the sword.

"Just some very determined messenger who didn't get the memo and the subtlety that I was trying to give her of what I was." Gary shrugged some before he continued. "I'll live. Just that she is more freaked out about hurting me than I am." Gary said looking over at Tia who was now leaning against an angled section of the top of the carrier.

"Is she..." the female said Tia started to rock back and forth, every with every move she had made replayed over and over again. She had harmed a User... One of the Creators... She just watched the scene unfold before her as the User talked with full realization in her mind to the other individual who was another User.

"No she will live, but I think that talking with her will take some time." With that Gary moved over and sat by her. Taking his uninjured arm and wrapping it around her Tia collapsed on his shoulder and sobbed. "Just take your time; I'll be here when you are ready."

* * *

Jet walked over to what looked to be an infirmary to see Gary being patched up with a bandage being wrapped around his arm and a program in White armor nervously watching the scene before her.

"Gary, what happened?" Jet said as Becky and several other programs stood around doing diagnostic work on Gary.

"Nothing much other than a misunderstanding between a messenger delivering a message to us." Gary nodded over to the white armored female program who was rubbing a long broad sword in her lap.

"I am so completely sorry about my actions User Gary." The program said with worry.

"Don't be Tia... Given what I have heard about the past thousand whatever's in this place have been like, you all have been on a shoot first and ask questions later." Gary said as as he lowered his arm down and flexed it a few times. "The first time in my life that being part sword swinging LARPer group would actually save my life."

"LARPer?" Tia said wondering what the term meant.

"Live Action Role Player. People who do dress up to perform fantasy combat in fields and empty lots." Gary said looking at Tia. "Though, this was the first time that I have had to use a Tron Disk as a short shield."

"Who knew being a role playing nerd with desires of becoming real life 2-Ton Twenty-one would be a great idea." Jet said grinning.

"A Venture Brother's Fan?" Jet said back.

"You know it." Gary said looking over at Tia. "Well guess that we are all here, so what was the message that you wanted to tell us?" It took the program a moment or two realize that this was the reason that she had come here. Caused all of the mess. Mistaken a User for a program, injuring him in the process. Taking a deep breath, Tia started to speak.

"You know that I am a program from the Outlands of the Grid. Well ages ago after the Iso Purge, programs who had Iso friends or knew of Iso locations that they stayed at during their long walk to Tron City started to flee the city for safety. Not all made it, but a few of us who did, found old Iso campgrounds and places they stayed to gain energy from the environment. Well finding places that Clu didn't know of we started colonies to live in safety. But a few hundred cycles ago we found a place, where we could hide. It was as if the Creator himself had made these tunnels throughout the Grid to get places. And we stated to use them." There was a pause before she continued. "When the Beacon became lit again with your arrival, several individuals from my colony went out through these tunnels and into the city. We saw where your User friend with the red hair was taken."

"Was it one of the southern islands?" Jet said as he pulled out a tablet and presented a map of the Grid with the varying density of the clouds shown. Tia looked at the image before her.

"Yes it was..." There was a long moment before she continued. "How did you get this image data?"

"Sam... Got through a little while ago when he sent this down. Wasn't able to get a direct lock on Anna, but he was able to get the weather information we needed." Jet moved his hands over the tablet some as he zoomed into the dense part of the cloud location. Becky moved over to look at the information.

"So this is what it looks like to Dave when he does his locate spells, no wonder Quorra freaked out back in the Real World." Becky said as Jet wasn't getting the reference but knew that given the strangeness over the last day or so it made sense. "Well instead of the entire Grid we at least have a general location to start from." Jet moved to tap on the screen some more but only got as far as he could with the imagery.

"Well, it is like hitting a maximum zoom point on Google Maps and Getting the words on the screen that say: no image available at this time." Jet said with a bit of frustration in his voice.

"Clu did a quite a bit of encryption on sectors that he didn't want anyone learning about." Tia said as Jet looked up from the Map.

"So, what do we do now?" Becky said as Radia walked in.

"Well, I have been listening to your conversation and I think I know a Program or two that might be able to help the three of you out. Jarvis, please come in." With that Radia motioned for a red cloaked program to come through the doorway.

"How may I assist the Users in their Task?" Jarvis said looking about the room wondering what would happen next. Gary went white as a sheet when he saw the other program with Jarvis.

"You have to be kidding me. The Ninja Dude, is the other guy."

"You have met Trace?" Jarvis said with worry.

"Yeah, I did. Found out that his kid sister was a User Groupie and got the point made that if I touch her without his blessing. . . I'm screwed."

"Oh. . ." Jarvis said moving sideways away from Trace.

"So far we have come to terms that I leave sis alone and it is hands off with her."

"And I don't Derezz his ass out of existence." Trace finished.

"Other than that we are fine." Gary finished as Jarvis looked at both figures before getting a good distance to where if a fight broke out he would have a quick escape route.

"So Radia said that you two might be able to help us find our friend." Jet said holding up the map.

"I think we can help you there." Jarvis said tapping on the screen and everyone listened to what he had to say.

* * *

Let me know what you think of this current chapter so far.

Please post a review after reading.

Next chapter I will be dropping back to the Real World to see things from that perspective.

I decided to put in Mercury into the story given that I wanted to give some more connected mythos of the Tron 2.0 characters, that and I wanted to lead into the entire Alan and Edward Dillanger Jr. idea that they were also snooping around the Grid to see what Sam was up to.

This will play into the next chapter.

Till next time.

Hearns


	17. Chapter 16

_To those reading this chapter, I did borrow some from the Fan Based Series, The Gargoyles Saga to fill in some of the blanks_

_I used to run in that Universe when I was younger and felt that given all of the nostalgia I have been going through writing this story, might as well make it part of the canon of this story._

_Here is some history of the TGS world for those new to it._

_In 1997 in the TGS Universe there was a war between a group of Dark Fae who along with a group of Genetically Engineered Vampires fought a war with the Gargoyles. Given that the Gargoyle community was outed by a terrorist attack on a police precinct and the fact that the Gargoyles are immune to Fae magic, these Dark Fae decided to attack the Gargoyle community in a covert war._

_As a result of the fighting the Gargoyle community gained some powerful human allies._

_As a result of this, the Gargoyle community won,_

_Like many soldiers after a war, many of the Vampire foot troops drifted off into the shadows wanting to get out of town and start fresh lives away from their old masters._

_I decided that these Vampires would eventually find employment under a new master with their unique magical and superhuman skill sets._

_This is where our story picks up._

_And Dudes…_

_Vampires vs. Tron/Renzler_

_Do I need to say any more for what will be happening in a future chapter!_

_Now on with our story._

* * *

**Magic and Programs Chapter 16**

* * *

Sam proceeded to watch as Balthazar and Veronica tied up their Vampire attacker who had barged through the secured door to the Transporter Room. Between the number of connected electrical ties and the several layers of duct tape, binding their attacker had to be done in such a way that it would buy them some time even if he broke loose from his bonds.

Even Alan had gone as far as to fish out an old Racket Ball that been lying around the old lab and shoved it into the Vampire's mouth to keep the bastard quiet and from calling out for help.

Knowing that time was of the essence, Sam and Quorra worked on restoring the communications protocols. But so far they had hit a wall at getting a video feed back. Then looking at the obscure command outputs, Quorra found an old communications protocol that Flynn used in his early days on the Grid. There blaring right before them was a message from Jet.

_**89 Q, J,B,G SAFE ON GRID, NEED WX REPORT ON LW CLOUD COV 2 FND ANNA. TRK SPL ON HER FRM B. BADGUYS HV HER. WE R NEAR BEACON, FIX COMM CODEC, NEED HELP! J.B.**_

Part of the message didn't make sense until Sam spoke it aloud, then Dave turned towards Sam and realized that somehow Becky had tapped into her User powers and had been able to place a track routine on Anna. Whatever had taken place wasn't good, but if they were asking for this information, then they were attempting a rescue mission.

After some quick thinking and having Dillinger and Alan help, Sam and Quorra quickly composed a message containing the information Jet and the others would need to survive.

**_JB, Q FND LRG CLOUDMASS OVR 1 SOUTHERN IS. BIG STRUCTURE THERE, LOTS OF PGMS. RMBER PORTAL CLOSES IN 1 MILLICYCLES I.E. 8 HRS FRM ARRIVAL ON GRID. WKING HRE 2 FIX BEAM. S Q A D_**

With that the message was sent, as everyone in the room turned and started to see if they could get the laser fixed so that their friends and loved one could return.

With that Dave lent his services and powers to rebuild the laser before the portal closed.

* * *

Jackie "Jack" Riddick was sitting behind her computer terminal, between Isabella having to come in at this last minute to pull the files down from a jump drive that she left on her desk because of the remote access overload caused by the attacks on ENCOM's main offices. The only reason that Jack and Isabella had come into the office was to grab these files so that they could finish their final projects. Jack felt for the woman being thirty-eight weeks along in her pregnancy and given that IT had found one of these death ray guns in this building wasn't sitting too well with her.

Whoever had orchestrated these attacks wanted to hurt people and bad. If she got the chance, Jack would... Well... PETA wouldn't like her for shoving a horse up the person's butt hooves first. But shoving a bear up a guys' bung hole. . .wasn't neither nasty enough, nor big enough for her. Plus sharks of the size she was thinking of were a protected species!

For Isabella' sake, she just wanted to get her friend out of here before anything went bad. Hell, she was going to be one of the Fairy God parents to Isabella's baby.

But there were some things keeping that woman sane, and this project was one of them. An augmented reality imaging system for video conferencing that would allow for a camera and projector feed to record and display overlaying images on any work surface from a tablet to a Smartphone, to a smart-board.

The idea came down to this... if one was working on a white board in one place and had a camera on them and the other team working on a different white board then with a teleconference app could be working on the same board in real time with both sets of projected data would be shown on top of each other for both to review in real-time. Link this to the new mini-projector technology hitting the market in the next month and it was a very powerful app.

Isabella's work was on the networking interface for the feed, while Jack's job was creating the graphics tools.

Jack liked Isabella as a friend though seeing Jack's heavily tattooed tough girl body next to Isabella's very pregnant frame was an odd sight to see but the two had been friends since they had started working here under the Bradley regime. Jack's graphic arts skill had worked well on many of the projects and this recent project was the one that had gotten them the most attention from the upper levels of management.

Heck Isabella was the main reason that Jack was seeing Matthew, a former soldier who had worked bomb disposal in Afghanistan.

Matthew didn't want to dig into her rumored traumatic past of why she had so many scars covering her body or the fact she covered them up with elaborate body art that pictured images of nature. When Jack was ready, she would tell Matthew the truth behind her appearance. That and He didn't mind the face that her head was shaved. Matthew had held on to her and let her cry, experience joy, happiness, and even the occasional wild early Saturday Morning crazy orgy sex when they had free time together as they became a couple. That was when she wasn't finishing up these upcoming release date sprints. It was the fact that he truly cared for her is what mattered.

Because of Isabella being Jack's wing chick, this relationship with Matthew, Jack felt truly safe, and given this Project Singularity that Sam Flynn was working on, she and Isabella were on the list of candidates to be the first to work on it.

Even Quorra Iso had said that she would be assigned to the Bostrumite Group on the project and after Isabella's maternity leave Isabella would also be joining her on the project as well. But this current project with Isabella had to be finished before they would get on the Project Singularity team and they were several weeks away from launch.

That was when the lights in the building started flicker.

Thank God for the invention of uninterrupted battery supplies.

"Crap.." Jack said as she reached over and pulled out a LED glow stick from her desk and turned it on. At least they didn't have to work by monitor light. "Of all the times."

"Must be the IT guys trying to get those cameras replaced." Isabella said as she adjusted her chair some as she felt the baby kick.

"What is it Isabella?" Jack said turning around.

"The baby just kicked." taking Jack's hand in her own Isabella places Jack's hand on her belly as the baby kicked again.

"You're right, your little one is awake." Jack said as she reached over and let the moment be as she twisted the knob on the back of the work chair to make Isabella more comfortable. "How's that?" Jack said leaning forward.

"Better, but lying naked in a hot tub with the top ten hunks from this month's Harlequin romance novel releases giving me Magus grade shoulder and foot massages would be excellent in comparison." Isabella said as Jack giggled at the image before her.

"Ah, the sex fantasy of every woman who isn't married to a famous soccer star or a multi-billionaire." Jack responded back.

"Yes," Isabella was unable to finish what she was going to say when there was a crash as something hit the floor.

Turning around Jack saw a figure sprinting right at them with a gun and from his appearance he wasn't a police officer or an ENCOM employee and the addition of night vision goggles meant that this was a person that she didn't want to meet. Jack quickly grabbing the glow stick threw it up into the Man's face. Using the temporary loss of night-vision of this individual, Jack grabbed the back of Isabella's chair and drove her pregnant friend out of the office area. That was when things went crazy as Jack sprinted down the line of cubicles to see another figure starting to run at them… along the ceiling.

Before clear reason clicked in, Jack yelled to Isabella to hold on tight as Jack made a tight turn around a set of cubicles and knocked down another uniformed thug as Jack sprinted to an open elevator. Jack spun the chair around so Isabella would be behind her so Jack could slow her friend down. Things didn't go as planned as Isabella's additional mass combined with the fact that Jack's speed was so great that Jack smacked into the back of the elevator.

Before Jack lost consciousness, she saw Isabella throw her purse at the button controls as the doors closed and the sounds of dings started as the elevator started to move.

* * *

Things were taking longer than expected Mordrid thought as he looked at the various video feeds that he was receiving from his personnel. Hell those genetically engineered Vampire/Dark Elf hybrid mercenaries that he picked up dirt cheap were doing their best to secure the building as fast as they could.

Ever since that damn Vampire-Gargoyle war that happened fifteen years ago, most of those Vampires decided get out of New York and live quite lives.

Hell most of them had children now and were living in places like Seattle and Forks, Washington.

But the Mercs he had found, just wanted to stay away from any magical creatures and just deal with human, and mage based targets.

The Prime Merlinian fit that bill to a "T".

Human with magical powers.

Now with his mother dead, Mordrid could do his conquest of the world without any interference from his mother's followers. Given that he now had full claim on the magical throne and a good chunk of the Morganian followers that would follow him to his obectives.

Given that Maxim Horvath, one of his mother's most loyal followers had gone off the grid several months ago when the Prim Merlinian had shown up in New York. Even with the magic trackers he had brought in to track the mage down, Horvath wouldn't be showing up anytime soon.

For the time being, that would be a good thing as Mordrid consolidated his power with the legions of Morganian followers now at his disposal.

That was when his train of thought was interrupted by a voice speaking into his ear.

"Sir, we had an encounter on one of the office floors." one of the voices said as it crackled over the secured communications link.

"What type of encounter?" Mordrid said into his headset.

"Two civilians Sir. We were in the process of securing them and they bolted towards the elevator sir. They must of sensed what we were planning on doing." There was a pause before the voice continued. "We currently have all cell phone, radio, and computer transmissions on lockdown so there won't be any outside call for help taking place."

"Make sure that we are out of here before midnight! Understood!" Mordrid made his point with his voice. "Past that and it won't be the authorities that you will be contending with… it will be with me!" The sound of the gulp was worth the compliance he needed.

"Understood Sir. We will locate and secure the individuals at once!"

Looking around at the monitors, Mordrid sighed. Richard Mackey, the previous CEO hadn't been this troublesome. Yes, he had been a greedy SOB but he had been able to get government contracts that allowed Mordrid Security to stay ahead of any investigation, but in less than six hours all of his data lines into the Pentagon, Military Intelligence, The CIA, NSA, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, etc. had all been cut off.

Even his hackers with magical skill working with a pilfered Quantum computer stolen from North Korea couldn't get past the new security that this Flynn kid had put in place by a few commands on his Smartphone.

Whatever the Prime Merlinian girl had created was so powerful that all of the work Mordrid had done over the centuries was now at risk of discovery.

This was only getting worse with Balthazar Blake in the equation. With a slight butt of his head against the command console Mordrid sighed. Looking up at the position monitor, there had been a blip that hadn't moved for several minutes.

Reaching over and tapping a few commands on flat panel display, showed in the blueprints something called Gibbs Lab. Other than that all information on it was sparse at best other than that the place had walls thick enough to survive a nuclear blast.

Most of the reading stated last position so having a sinking gut feeling wasn't good.

"This is command, could someone send a follow up team to check on TC-801." the communications unit buzzed .

"Yes, Sir! Unit TR-101 is heading that way to make sure he isn't jacking off to porn in his cell phone."

"You do that!" This was not going to be a good night for him as Mordrid popped a bottle of iron free antacid and took a hard slug from the bottle.

The last thing Mordrid needed was for things to get any more worse tonight than they already were.

* * *

Martin hurt like hell as he messed with his cell phone. Working as a security guard at ENCOM for the past ten years had earned him a great health plan and a decent living, but in the past year he had seen things change for the better. He had even gotten respect for the graveyard shift he ran and even had gotten his own team of men to help monitor the building.

Now a since being hit by that concealed heat-ray gun, he was pissed. Between the burns he had received from the weapon and the fact that they had found so many… this had sounded like an inside job. Police, IT and even his own security team were looking over every installed camera and he didn't like where this was going.

Martin had been talking with his staff when the line went dead. Whatever was going down wasn't good as he sat up in his hospital bed and tried Mr. Flynn's voice over computer number. After the tha-thonk sound played for like the third time he sensed that something was wrong. Mr. Flynn didn't disconnect this number and the only way this thing wouldn't connect was if he was on the far side of the moon.

With a few slides through his phone's call index he had found Mr. Bradley's pager number. Thank goodness for the man's love of vintage eighties tech.

It had taken forever to navigate the menu options but Martin had been able to leave a short message and a number to call Martin back.

Leaning back in his bed Martin looked at the news headline scrawled across the screen.

**WEAPONS MALFUNCTION OVER LA**

**_Motorist targeted on local Freeway by Malfunctioning Drones._**

Something in Martin's gut said to get off his ass and get his injured behind to the office to do something with the investigation.

With that Martin sat up and looked at his reflection in the emergency room glass door. He looked like crap, but whatever was going on Martin felt that he needed to do something and urgently.

So Martin heaved his behind out of the bed and over to his clothes and got dressed.

Sneaking out would take a bit of time, but if he got out of here, he knew he was heading, and he prayed that he wasn't too late to make a difference.

* * *

**TBC**

For those of you who have been liking the story so far and putting me on the Favorite Author and Story pages, please drop me a review so I can find out what you have enjoyed far.

Well next chapter is back on the Grid, but the events of Gem's visions are slowly taking form. So stay tuned for some action ahead.

* * *

I caught a goof while rereading this chapter and I upped Isabella's pregancy date some so in the orignal version she was at 33 weeks. After some research I upped it to 38 weeks to give the kid a fighting chance and also throw in some curves for Gem to deal with given what will be happening next.

Well here is to the next chapter.

Oh, and for you all. Jackie is based on Jack from _Mass Effect_ and a little on Jack from _Pitch Black_


	18. Chapter 17

fMagic and Programs Chapter 17

* * *

Gibson watched as Jet Bradley worked on his equipment. It was strange watching this User who had called him a Jackass a few millicycles ago now look at him now as an equal. The speed at which Jet was moving was incredible. It was like watching Flynn do a repair to a program or a creating a structure out of sheer will alone from the essence of the Grid. But what was taking shape with the construction equipment on the Command Carrier was striking.

Off in the back of the room Yori and Ophelia the first Iso watched the User work. For some strange reason since the events of the Re-Rezzing Ophelia had taken up studying Flynn's text about the User World and about how Programs were created to see if she could figure out the "secret sauce" that lead to them coming into existence.

So far Ophelia had been able to figure out that the Iso Ellie had been partially formed when the Sea of Simulation had been poisoned by Clu. But there was something about Ellie's code that screamed that there was something different about her, that she was something more than a simple Iso.

Given that the recent craziness that had erupted with the arrival of the Users on the Grid, that information and research had been put in hold as all available resources had been diverted to aiding the Users in their battle in the Real World.

In a way Gibson understood her feelings. The arrival of Ellie had changed things here on the Grid and given hope that those lost during Clu's reign would one day return.

It was as if the Creator with his last breath had healed the Sea of Simulation. But it had been Jet's role in sending in the repair programs that had started the Sea into producing life once again. Maybe in time, newer Isos would come about and Ellie wouldn't be alone and constantly searching for answers to questions that Isos like himself had long ago had given up upon.

Now Gibson watched as Jet moved his hands across the equipment as he saw a design for something he had never seen before start to flood into being as Rezmatter was directed by Jet to create some new vehicle that would be need soon.

"What is that?" Gibson said looking at the strange design as the code started to lock into place.

"Well it is an amphibious transport called a hovercraft." Jet said as the vehicle started to take shape on the deck below. "Since Anna and the others are on an island and given that air approach is out of the question. Going over the water seems the best option for us and the fact that this thing is designed for speed we can get a team there fast." Gibson looked at the design and scratched his head.

"The thing looks like an aircraft without any wings but with more thrusters than a fleet of Recognizer." Gibson said looking at the strangeness of the design.

"Well, yes it does, but given that most of the stuff here is designed to either- fly, dive or hover. This thing is designed to float." Jet said as he got 'what in the name of creation did you just make?' look on everyone's faces. "It is designed to fly fast and low to any surface and not leave any trace it has been there."

That was when the design started to make sense.

"Oh... OH!" Yori said realizing what it was for. "It was meant for travel across your seas of your system at wave level."

"Yes." Jet grinned as the realization of what he was building started to fit into these Programs heads. "Given how big this is, we might be able to load a few vehicles on board so that we can mount a rescue operation without being noticed."

"Hopefully, Anon can get some more details about the complex your friend is being held at." Ophelia said as she watched the rest of the Hovercraft come into existence.

"Same here. Same here." Jet said as he left the controls and moved over to touch the transport that would be carrying them to the Island where Anna and the rest of the Programs that had helped them were being held.

* * *

Becky sat down next to Ellie and looked out across the sea to the Beacon from the roof of the carrier. In the last hour or so since Trace had creamed Gary into the ground and the entire Tia incident with the sword. This one program had been moving around watching them from afar as she was doing her best to learn about them without getting in the way. That was about the time when Radia had revealed that Ellie had been the first Iso to emerge on the Grid in the last 20 years. That one statement had gotten everyone's attention. The very fact that they were still sorting out the miracle that had taken place that had brought about the creation of this girl had been put on hold due to the entire mess in the Real World had slammed itself right onto the Grid.

In a way Becky felt for the girl. She was so new to the world and all she wanted was to know how she fit into it.

So far there was nothing to do for the time being until Jet finished work on the transport that would get them to the island where Anna and Gem were being held and do their rescue operation.

Gary was still recovering from his injuries and had started his best to be on communications watch until they got the next message from back home about what else was going on outside of the Grid.

So that left Becky free to do some exploring of the ship and seeing how Ellie was following her around Becky had decided to hang with the girl for a little while and get the know her.

"So... I heard about the commotion that you caused with trying to get a look at Gary when he was on the flight deck." Becky said as the young Iso blushed as they looked out to the glowing beam of light before them.

"From all of the things I have heard about the Users was that they were powerful beings. Things of Awe, and strangeness in what they did and were capable of doing many things that would boggle the mind of the most powerful program." Ellie said as she reached out and touched Becky to see if she was real; it was the same way Becky had acted when Dave had started to show off some his powers to her. "That's what Trace says about your kind." There was a long pause from the girl as she studied Becky. "You sort of feel a little different. Like a running stream of live energy, but with a beat to it." Ellie started to tap the place where they were sitting and Becky Recognized the sound as a heartbeat.

"Yeah... Well I am still wrapping thing around my mind about this place existing." Becky said leaning back to look at the beam of light going off into the sky. "From what I have heard about the stories your people have been telling about my world, it is sort of like hearing stories about this place given how Quorra and Sam tell it."

"Tell me about them. Sam and Quorra." Ellie turned towards Becky. "What are they like? I mean I am less than a cycle old, but they are talked about like they are stronger than any User or Program that has come before."

Becky reached over and pulled a strand of curly hair back around the girl's ear.

"They're good people." Becky took a deep breath before she continued. "They have been through a lot the both of them. Quorra losing her people during the Purge here and Sam losing his father by Clu trapping him here on the Grid. But in a way the strength that they have gained from these loses have that provided them a chance to find a balance within each other. In knowing that have the same scars, they have learned that they are not alone in the world." Ellie looked sad at Becky. "I mean, I given Sam's past history with authority I thought we were going toe to toe with a Morganian. But now... I see him as a sort of person that needed a cause and someone to fight for. And for Quorra, I think is doing her best to fill that void in her life after learning that she was supposed to help change the world."

"I wish that I could meet her, I mean there are so many questions I want to ask her…. Like what was it like being the student of the Creator? What is the meaning of life? Why the Sky is Black? Why do programs glow? What is the User World like? What is it like to kiss a boy…? Program or otherwise?" Becky grinned at Ellie.

"Yeah... You are Quorra's little sister." Becky gave a light nudge to the girl's shoulder.

"Sister?" It took Becky a moment to realize that this world was radically different than her and that the Girl didn't know what the term meant.

"A female of the same group of individuals that share many of the same aspects as you, but are either older or younger in physical age. They don't have to be related to you by genetics, though they have to care about you." The confused look on Ellie's face said much.

"Could you explain some more, I think I am confused." Ellie said looking at Becky.

"You are an Iso, and Quorra is an Iso. Though born several years apart, you share many of the aspects that are so similar. You remind me so much of Quorra. All that spunk, questions about the world, and willing to delve into the deeper meaning of things."

"You mean, because I am an Iso that I am like her?"

"No, in a way, I think..." Becky rubbed her head. "God... I wish that there was more context to explain things to you." In a half defeated way Becky turned to look at Ellie.

"Ellie. You are more than the code that makes you up. Being related to one being or another by blood, an origin, or memories, doesn't matter." Becky reached out and placed her hand on Ellie's chest. "It is your soul that links you to others and makes them your family." Becky grinned. "You, have family, Ophelia, Radia, Jalen, Anon, Quorra, even Trace in a strange way is the over protective older brother."

"Yeah... Trace though he isn't an Iso like myself, he feels like family. Am I using the term right?" Ellie looked to see if she had gotten the context right. Becky nodded. "Good, I have never seen his face other than one time, and even then it was half concealed. Maybe because of the scar down his face he feels might scare others. But in a way, he has been teaching me so much about life." Becky hugged the girl.

"That's family Ellie." Becky said realizing that in a way one of this girl's questions had been answered.

"Well, I think Trace wants to make sure that I don't get hurt. But there is so much I want to do, learn, explore." Ellie stood up looking out upon the Grid and to the Beacon.

"You might get that chance when he feels that you are old enough to handle things." Becky said looking at the girl.

"That's good." Ellie grinned as Trace came up to where they had been sitting.

"Becky. Jet wishes to speak with you." Trace said with the reverb growl his voice had.

"Okay." As Becky stood up she turned to speak with Trace. "Trace, you have been a good older brother to her. Just give her some space to make a few mistakes on her own so that she can learn from the experience. You were once her age at one time. Reckless and wild." The sigh/growl seemed mellow but understanding.

"I was expecting this day to come." With that Trace took something off his belt and walked over to Ellie. "Ellie, before the Purge took place, Flynn invented units like these for young Iso's to have, and I think that you have reached the age where you have earned the right to have one." With that Trace reached over and placed something on Ellie's disk mount. "It is called a Navibit and it will give you information about various places and items on the Grid." There was a soft grin on the Program's face. "I know that I might not be always there to save you, but I want to ensure that you are safe." Tapping the unit, Ellie's eyes flickered for a moment and the unit came to life and Ellie took of her Disk and held it up.

"Identity Disk, stores all information of a program..." Ellie waved her hand in her vision in an attempt to touch something in her eyesight that Becky wasn't seeing but in a way Becky figured that it was some sort of heads up information display system for young programs. "I see information floating in my eyesight." Ellie said as she then she looked at Trace. "I see your name, You're a Monitor Program, Basic." There was a pause from Ellie as she checked her vision. "You're really old." Then Ellie turned to look at Becky. "Female, User." Then, Ellie took a few steps as she placed her disk back on her back.

"It should be able to provide you some information to keep you out of trouble." Ellie realized that Trace had given her a very important gift. With that Ellie hugged Trace who was taken aback by this sudden sign of affection.

"Thank you Trace." Becky grinned as Ellie started to cry. "Becky, I see a lot of my questions are still there, but, I see a lot of things now make sense."

"That's good Ellie, I hope to see you again before I leave." Ellie nodded as Becky walked with Trace. "Same here, I wish to see you again. Go and see, what Jet wants to tell you." Ellie said as she walked away to explore what new functions she now had.

"That is a good thing you did for her Trace." Becky said to the Monitor program.

"It was." Trace said Ellie had given the Grid equivalent of Training wheels. "Now we have much to get you ready for." Trace guided Becky towards the Elevator and the system recognized that they were to head down.

"So where are we going?" Becky said to Trace.

"The Armory."

* * *

In the past two hours Anna had watched the repairs be done to the imprisoned programs. Between her lending her expertise and help from the Programs in the other cells, they had gotten most of everyone up and running. Though confined in her small corner Anna knew that it was only time before the guards were going to return.

From what information that Anna was able to gleam from the disk, that had been scavenged from the Guard she had destroyed was quite a bit. Between Gem's memories aiding her Anna felt that this place had been through one hell of a system conflict. As she started to get hold of the ideas of the politics of this place were like. Somehow as the Grid started to develop over time while Sam's Dad was away from the system, the Programs here had started to form their own society. Like any society there had been some cultural conflicts that had arisen when the Isos had appeared on the Grid. For some strange reason Sam's father failed to update the parameters to the system so that these new programs were to be tolerated and left alone. Because of that lack of foresight the Iso Genocide had taken place. Now the Grid had been split between two factions. The recently rebooted Iso sympathizers who were willing to listen to the new mandate to the system and the programs that were following the old protocols that Flynn had established for the Grid.

No wonder things had gotten so screwed up.

Since the introduction of Dual-core and now quad-core processors and Internet push system updates on recent system, this nightmare wouldn't have happened. Changing the system administrator from a king to that of being a secretary analyst brought about more stability to the systems she now worked on. Given this mess, the same set up would probably help the system settle down. Even heal up some old wounds that had taken place.

From the information that Anna had gleamed from Gem and from this Guard's memories this General Tessler and his daughter Paige would be the key in getting things back into swing on this system.

Radia as leader of the Lead System administrator would be coming to an end. Now it was up to Anna to make sure that Radia wouldn't be fried in the process.

With that Anna got up and walked over to the cell door and yelled out.

"Guard... I wish to be taken to your leader. I have much to talk to him about."

Gem quickly moved over to Anna and looked out to the hallway.

"Have you formulated a plan for escape?" The Siren said looking at her.

"No… Not so much a plan for escape. More like a diplomatic solution. Now it is up to me to find out if this Tessler guy is an asshole or not and if he is willing to take the deal on the table."

"What if Tessler is an asshole and doesn't take the deal?" Gem said worried.

"Plan B."

"What is plan B?" Gem said with interest and concern.

"Not to get killed." There was a long pause from Gem before she continued.

"What about us?" With that Anna put a hand on Gem's Shoulder.

"I might have something planned for that!" With that Gem listened.

* * *

Paige stood looking at the monitor as it replayed images of the battle that had taken place in Tron City and of the events of the captured User's reboot. It was terrifying stuff. There was much information missing about what had been going on in the User World and with the arrival of these new Users, the Grid was set for another change.

In the cycles since the Creator and Clu had been Derezzed, there had been changes on the Grid. Radical and terrifying ones.

With the Arrival of the Warriors of the EULA on the Grid and their role in "Repairing" the system, Paige had heard the stories of some of the changes that had been done. The compressing of programs that had fought these new Grid monitors. The rerezzing of long deleted programs like Beck's cohort and current lover Mera; whom Paige despised with a vengeance for Beck caring about more than her. Then there were rumors that even the EULA were at the Beacon, ready at a moment's notice to Derezz anyone unfortunate enough to venture near that sight.

So far Paige's only lead to understanding that power was I. The form of the captured program at had been found in her room here in the complex. The perfection that had been Clu's Grid was now under threat.

Bodhi... a friend of that Tron wannabe Beck; (how much of a pain in her side had that single program had been, and for some strange reason she still lusted after him in the back of her disk allocation) now sat in that cell before her after he had been separated from the other programs before the battle in Tron City.

Between him and this female User, Paige hoped that the secret of what had taken place on the Grid would soon make sense. That was when Tessler walked into the room along with Shodan.

Shodan had been repurposed to fit the role of a Tower Guardian so that Clu could perform his plot to lure someone from the User World so that he could open the Portal there. Now seeing that sadist woman worming her cunning manipulative hooks into Tessler made her sick knowing the thing she did.

Shodan was like a virus, sultry, sly and did stuff to programs that she shuddered to think about. Paige wished that Shodan had not been repurposed or at least she could have seen an earlier version of her so that she had a reference of how much to distain her. But for Paige, Shodan was a necessary evil to deal with as she had been the one to gather the remaining resources that had been left over from Clu's Derezz from the Grid. Tessler had the leadership skills; Shodan had the army and other resources at her disposal…

"General…. Good that you are here." Paige said as she bowed before her leader and father-figure. "I have an update on my analysis of the program sir." Paige waited patiently for him to respond.

Oh yuck, they were kissing like lovers. Could they have waited a fraction of a millicycle to do that outside of this room after she gave her update and not interface for pleasure at this moment?

"Continue." Tessler said turning towards Paige.

"Well from the analysis from what I have found from this rerezzed program that was found in my quarters... It looks like the data was pulled off with some sort of retrieval subroutine. What is strange here is that his disk was derezzed with him." This was when Shodan leaned over again and was hanging off of him. "Somehow from what limited data I have been able to find out that the Users must have developed a new technology that would allow them to retrieve a Program from complete derezulution."

"And this means what to us in relation to the current circumstances." Shodan said putting her voice into the conversation.

"I mean, that if they possess this type of technology, it means that any Program that had been deleted with their disk can be reconstituted. As in if we had access to the technology, then we might be able to retrieve Programs such as Clu from where ever the Users have him hidden at."

That suddenly got the attention of both Shodan and Tessler.

"You mean that... Clu is still on the system?" Tessler spoke with awe and bitterness at realizing that his current hold on power would be shifted away from him.

"Yes, and like the rest of the programs that have been derezzed by those who follow the Users, we might be able to replenish our own forces in less than one Millicycle." This had gotten the attention completely of Tessler.

"How long do you think it will take you to perfect the process?"

"Not long. The basics of the technique are sound. But understanding the nuances of the process that will be have to be completely understood so that I can bring our troops back from derezolution."

"What do you need?" The General said to Paige.

"The disk of a User." That was when a guard approached the General.

"Sir... The captured User wishes to speak to you."

"Well talk about serendipity." Tessler said as he walked to the computer display and accessed the feed to the cell block. The User was standing behind the force field that had contained her. Given what had happened earlier with the previous guards steps had been taken to keep a good distance from this individual when being monitored and not to approach unless told to do so. "Looks like you are going to get the User's Disk after all."

"I will take apocopate measures to ensure that she is compliant." Paige said as she looked at her quarry. "She is different from Flynn but like all Users they all have their pressure points." The User looked at the camera and placed her hand on the field drawing energy from it and spoke one word softly as she closed her eyes projecting her will into the system.

"Paige."

* * *

TBC

* * *

This past chapter I decided to throw in some characters from the series _Tron: Uprising_ to make the world seem larger and to flush out some of the characters more.

Shodan comes from the name of a Videogame villainess from the _System Shock_ game series and will play an important part later on in the next chapter.

I decided to leave this chapter short so I can go straight to action in the next chapter.

Next Chapter – Gem Initiates Plan B


	19. Chapter 18

Magic and Programs Ch 18

* * *

Bodhi had over the last few millicycles he had been poked and prodded in places that he didn't even know that he had. The last thing that he remembered was being with his friends on the disk arena in Argon City, and then their game had been interrupted by a command carrier flying over the area and dropping down a statue of Administrator Clu. Then he had been hit with a guard's staff and he had woken up on the balcony of some female program's apartment in the rain.

Given that she bore the same coding as the guards that had hit him it wasn't good.

What had happened to Beck, Mara, and Zed after he had gotten hit?

Were they somewhere else in this place?

Bodhi would have given up his disk allocation for his recoder tool so he could get out of here.

That was when a group of Guards came through the door pointing shock batons at a female program as she was directed towards him. Between the white and blue garments she had on, there was a large section of red coding that covered one of her shoulders.

That was when the Program whose room he had wound up in moved in with her.

"User …" the Program spoke with assertion. Wait … did he just hear that right. User… This woman was a User… Bodhi looked up in shock. "You will use your knowledge to demonstrate how your kind have been able to rerezz programs from complete derezzulution."

"So I take it, that this guy here is my test subject?" The User said looking over at Bodhi.

"Yes and no …" The red coded female said looking at Bodhi. "I want to know how this program was able to infiltrate our headquarters here." There was a sigh from the User.

"Since I am a User, you want me to see if this guy was part of the batch that got rebooted like those in the cells where I have been held?"

"Yes … You catch on quick User." The Program said as she walked up to the User and ran a finger across her disk. Then with one hand the program removed the disk from the User. "I know that the information on your disk will provide me with the answers about the rerezzing process. I know that your kind does have this tendency to create shortcuts and subroutines that increase the speed of a process significantly, I wish to know that as well." Said the female program and she looked towards the User that stood before Bodhi.

"So, you guys just want the information on the Disk, but there is more to that than actually having it. You want the intellect and the skill set behind it. You want to create programs! Not just do the ad hoc repurposing Clu did when he tried to invade the Earth, but create actual programs to your own specifications." There was a long pause as the User Looked at program. "You want to procreate!" With this the program took several steps back. "You want to do the next step in your machine evolution. You want to create a world of your own... One where you are not dependent on the Users to make new Programs for your society."

"How dare you..." The Female Program started to protest at the direction the conversation was taking as the User looked at Bodhi.

"You want programs like the Basics, minus all crap the Isos brought to the system with their unpredictability. You want programs that do what they are told and nothing more. Or do you want programs that are able to evolve past you. Take that next step in machine evolution where they will be able to adapt at a drop of a hat to any situation thrown at them." Anna looked the female program up and down before walking up and down before placing a hand on the stomach area of the program. "Or is this for yourself, to be able to experience the mystical power of the ability to create life and feel it grow the same way Users like myself do inside of our bodies." With this the User leaned in and whispered into the program's ear. "You want to make a baby."

"Wait… is that what you think?" That statement made the User stop cold as she stepped back.

"You want something else from me?"

"What do you know about systems other than the Grid?"

"Why?" The User said realizing the idea track the Program wanted her on.

"Because I know that there are places other than the Grid where the Programs such as myself had come from before Flynn brought us here."

"You are talking about the original Encom Mainframe. You want to get back on the old system so that you can be left alone or at least be able to ship folks from here there so you don't have to fight them and have your nice little perfect little world back." The User said nodding to the Program's demands. "Perfectly understandable considering the mess that Sam's old man left when he failed to do a few slash all of the system updates to let you all know what he was planning on doing with the system." This was Bodhi decided to speak.

"This Sam's Old Man... Are you talking about the Creator?"

"Yes we are." Said the User looking over at Bodhi.

"The Son of Flynn?"

"Yes." This time it was the Programs' turn speaking.

"So... what in the Name of the Users is going on here?"

"You had been derezzed a long time ago and due to some technology that Users possess you have been reconstructed back to your original form. Little Miss Manx here is in the process of finding out how much of the system got Fried when Sam's old Man decided to go with the nuclear option and do an reintegration with Clu which nuked most of the Grid given the amount of time it took to do the rebuild." There was a long pause from the User as she said this. "Listen up Princess, The drive... the Master disk to the Grid, this place got fried in the process and given the amount of work of salving the system took over six months to copy over the data to a new drive. Yes dear, you are a copy. Everyone you know is a copy; even surfer dude here is a copy." With this the User walked towards the female program and stared her down. "Yeah, you are a copy. The original version of you was derezzed from the explosion that took out Clu and Sam's father. You want the secret of the process... a Camera, a can of iron oxide, and a nice little program that turns ones and zeros back into usable data on its allocation table."

"I am a copy?" The female program blanked a few times in shock.

"This isn't even the original Grid. Check my disk... You will know that I am right."

There was a long pause from the female program as she was confronted with these cold hard facts.

"I suspected the damage to the Grid had been extensive, but..." the female program accessed the User's Disk and started to search through the information in a vain hope poke a hole in the logic she had been confronted with. The look in her face of horror spoke otherwise as the numbers and facts were confirmed.

"Fight me, leave me be, or work with me. It is up to you." Placing a hand on Bodhi's shoulder the User waited. "What do you want from me? Because if you want Clu back, it will take a while because we have to sort all of the old information out before we can figure out how to dig him and Flynn off of the drive because the two of them have been so mixed together with their data."

"I do not know..." The female program said in fear as this being from the User World had laid out secrets from the other side about the past and had not lied about it. Bodhi realized that this force was calculating the situation but knew that it did not wish to do harm but was willing to dish it out if it had to.

"Then I shall wait." With that the User leaned against the wall and pushed her hand through it. "Gem, go with B."

* * *

Gem was sitting in the cell as she held up the stick of red user lip paint and started to trace a jagged line across another Program's face. Somehow the information from an ancient data file pertaining a land called Og and infiltration into it had come in handy from the memories she had gleamed from Anna's mind. Given the amount of material in this tube Gem knew that looking like the programs in the cell with her had been infected by the User would be key in getting all of the programs in this entire wing out. That was when the energy fields in the cell block started to flicker some as the letter "B" appeared across them before fading out.

"Looks like Anna is in place." Kive said as he watched as Gem completed her alterations to the programs in the pit cell.

"Well I am almost done here." Gem said as she did a quick line across her face and hair before she looked towards the program cowering in the corner.

"Erase me... Erase me..." he mumbled in fear. Anna had checked out that Program's disk and had smiled when she had seen the manufacturer coding for Konami Industries Limited with that the plan had been formed and set up. Now it was all up to Anna to be the distraction. Now it was time for Erase Me to play his part in this little Chicken Run meets Night of the Living Dead.

Taking Erase by his disk and standing him up Gem accessed his diagnostics she called up a simple motor command function and tapped in the following commands: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B. After hearing the system buzz in error, Gem spun him around and slapped him across the forehead and the command took.

"What did you do to me?" Erase said as Gem grabbed him by the arm and spun him around before she threw him towards the pit cell's doorway with all of the force that she could muster. With a quick hard zap and echo reverb the Program Derezzed from the field, chewing him up as he turned into voxels, then a moment later the still falling bits reconnected together to reform the Program together. "Wha… What just happened?" the Program said as he turned himself over on the floor.

"Looks like that ancient little cheat code Anna knew came in handy." Gem said as she walked over to the still shielded door. "Hey... could you open the door for the rest of us?" The program just was in a state of shock, but understood whatever had happened he was outside.

"Wha..." The meek little program said.

"Push the big button by the door that says Open... and I will explain what happened to you." With that the Program just nodded and got up and opened the door.

"What did you do to me?" The program said worried.

"A little override codec called the Konami Code that keeps a certain kinds of programs from being derezzed for a short period of time." Gem lied. If this program knew what she had done to him, he would have freaked.

"Oh..." The Program watched as the red marked programs started to leave from the cells and started to flood into the corridor and started to open other cells.

"We have only a little time, so everyone be ready to fight." Kive said giving orders as disks were drawn and Programs were readied to fight as they started their way down the hallways towards the main hanger.

"Anna... Hope that your plan works." Gem prayed as she printed beside her other liberated programs.

Meanwhile back in the Real world, Alan Bradley was working with Sam and Quorra to see if they could hack in some help for their friends Trapped on the Grid. After looking at the age of the OS that Jet had been able to graph the Grid onto Alan decided to pull something out that was equally as old.

"Sam, I need you to load a program off of my personal system." Sam looked up from the screen. In the last few moments he and Quorra had been able to reboot the Periscope system and had been able to get a look at the events that were recently playing out. It wasn't looking good.

"Alan what program do you need me to load?" Sam aid calling up the remote access application and let Alan type in the IP address to his computer and with the desktop up in a reduced and image shrunk window Alan told him the file to bring up.

"Bring up and transfer in Weyland 112987 from the system and place it into the network folder." With that Sam drug the file over and dumped it into the network share folder that was used put files onto the Cloud system.

"Alan what type of program is this?" Quorra said wondering what they were loading onto the system.

"A little program that Jet and I found on the old Encom system from years ago; it was written by your father when he was trying to regain his name Sam." Alan said as he tapped a few keys on the touch screen and assigned the program it's mission on the Grid.

"What was the Program designed to do?" Quorra said concerned.

"Let's just say, Sam's old man used it to fix his speeding tickets and a few other things during his hacker days. I on the other hand have been using it to take back the company from opportunistic scumbags like Macky and provide information to the press on some of ENCOM misdeeds."

"So an infiltration and espionage program." Quorra said grinning. "No better time to use it than now."

"Let's see how he handles on the Grid.". With that Alan launched the program and gave it specific parameters of what to do then looking at the Periscope screen they watched as the Program Rezzed into existence and proceeded with his mission as he snuck into the base in a stolen grid tank.

Once Sam saw what the Program looked like, he added a few more orders for it to follow and hoped that this early Skuzzy logic program could do what he hoped it could.

* * *

Outside of the cell block standing over the derezzed remains of a sentry stood a masked yellow coded program that spoke softly. "Well this reminds me of the old days fighting against the remnants of the MCP on the old Grid." And with that he walked down the hallway back towards his tank to aid these programs to their freedom. Since Alan1 had given him his orders to free the imprisoned programs in this sector of the grid and aid them in locating in finding the one known as Anna Hilde. Things had gone well and given that he was authorized reboot compromised programs back to their original settings had come in handy a few times while he was in this place. Now it looked like he was going to do it again.

"Who goes there?" A sentry Program said raising a staff to the yellow program. Dropping his mask the program stopped cold and saluted. "Sir... I did not know that..." With a quick slash of his disk the program was derezzed as another program behind him stopped cold in his tracks and quickly stood down. Weyland knew that his deputized System Monitor status only would last do long and given the bad vibe of that the Program that he had encountered. Derezzing the guy was he only way that he could protect his cover as he rebooted the Red Programs on the system.

"Give me your disk Program." After several taps and accesses of the disk's data and a little reprogramming the disk was returned to the Program. The moment it was synced the Program started to obey its new orders.

"I will aid you sir." The program said as the hacker program walked down the hallway. "Long Live CLU 1.0, Long Live Wyland the Great. Server and Finder of the Users."

"Yeah, Dude... Let's do some damage in the name of Alan1 and Zack Attack." With that he raised his helmet back into place and walked with a plan of growing a legion of reprogrammed warriors to aid his friends. "Now, let's start fixing and getting you all back to your original programming so that his place can be rebooted back to normal. This is going to be better than the time I fixed all of Flynn's parking tickets and modified his tax return data back in '82."

"We will aid you to our fullest capabilities at this time sir!" one of the re-tuned programs said as they marched with him through the hallways.

* * *

Jet was sitting at the controls of the hovercraft. So far the detection systems had not noticed them yet. The number of programs that were on the deck were considerable. Jet had not known that the number of modified off-road light cycles of various configurations existed, but add to that the mini-light jets, light-boats, even a few collapsed Recognizers, Light-copters, and a hand-full of mini-Grid Tanks... This was going to be a messy beach landing.

Trace looked over his shoulder as the duplicated craft followed along side.

"This is an ingenious way of getting close to this facility." Jet Grinned to some degree.

"Well, it works for the Marines... Might as well work for us." Jet said swallowing hard. "Now let us pray that this landing goes better than the one that occurred at Normandy Beach."

"Why is that... Did it fail?" Trace said with concern.

"No... It didn't fail, but there was a lot of bloodshed to take that beach from the forces that held it."

"Oh..." Trace said as he looked out as the teams readied themselves for the battle ahead. "Team Charley... attack sector WLF 359." Jet looked at Trace with a strange look on his face.

"Did I hear that right Trace?" Jet said glancing back.

"It seemed fitting, from Gary's point of view that the invasion points match places from your history." Jet understood.

"So what is our location?" Jet said with concern.

"A place called Minas Tirith."

"The place that the major battle of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy took place. Great just great, so what is the last of the three?"

"The Hallelujah Mountain Pass." With that Jet placed his hand on his forehead and rubbed his temples hard.

"Yeah... talk about obscure references of major battles." Looking out onto the upcoming island. "Gary... If I survive this, I am going to kill you real slowly for the name references you used." Seeing the cliffs they were about to hit Jet realized why the names had been chosen. Wolf was a sheer cliff wall, Minas Tirith was a winding path and, well Hallelujah was pretty much self-explanatory. "Scratch that... Gary... I love you." Turning towards Trace Jet spoke quickly. "Trace... I think Gary figured out how to breach these places in the shortest amount of time." With that Jet told Trace to contact the other commanders. Maybe they would have a chance to get to Anna and the other before it was too late.

* * *

Becky held up the baton in her hands. The simple yet Highly complex device that was the Swiss army knife of this world felt heavy in her hands as she watched the shoreline approach through the view port. Given the new armor that Trace had given her, she felt safe. Though... she had wished that she had been able to keep her underwear. But as the armor had been sprayed onto her form, it started to behave like regular clothing as it formed the base unitard undergarment that expanded out into much more sturdy and reinforced battle worthy armor. Looking over at the male African program next to her, Becky knew that after all of her practice on the top deck of the carrier she would be the means that would enable the forces to breach through the walls of Minas Tirith

That was when the craft opened up and the landing platforms started to angle out along with the slingshot launchers that would fling out the programs with their aircraft batons.

"Five nanocycles till landing!" A voice called out and Becky watched as the Programs got into position. Becky remembered watching the first fifteen minutes of Saving Private Ryan for one of her history classes and knew that this was going to get real bloody and messy. Was this what Dave had to deal with when he went into battle?

"Four nanocycles till landing!" The countdown was getting closer.

"Hey User... don't worry. I served with Flynn and Tron. I will be at your side." The program next to her said as she felt the waves crash against the vessel.

"Okay." Becky said worried. But knowing that there was someone watching her back made her feel a little better.

"What's your name?" Becky said.

"Cutter."

"Becky." With that Becky reached into one of her pouches on her belt and handed a few coins to the program. "Here take these. You can give them back to me after the battle." Becky said.

"What are they?" the program said rolling them in his fingers.

"Coins... in ancient times, soldiers... Warriors would trade them to another so that they would bring them luck in battle... So they wouldn't die. You can't die if you owe someone these and haven't returned them." The program looked at the strange metal disks in his hand.

"Oh..." The program placed them into a pouch on his belt. "Thank you."

"Preparing launch of aerial units." With that, several programs were flung off of the ship vertically and around them formed their aircraft as they streaked through the sky. That was when the firing started to take place as the craft slammed into the beach and the front dropped.

"Looks like we are up." Becky watched as Cutter sprinted forward and formed a four-wheels quad rider underneath him as he speed into battle. Becky sprinted behind him and formed her own four-wheeled transport as well as they sped along the beach towards one of the walls that would be breached for the battle.

"Hold on Anna, we are coming." Becky said as explosions were taking place around her as she felt scared like she had never felt before.

* * *

Anna watched as Paige went through the shock of the truth being thrown into her face. A feeling that Anna understood from several hours earlier. Kneeling down she had removed the shackles from the prisoner program that had been in the room with her. The number of guards in the room watched her from a distance but were keeping a good distance from her due to what had happened to one of their cohorts in the cell block. Since Anna hadn't taken any hostile action towards them and was for the most part being cooperative with Paige here... Well that had worked in her favor as she let things play out the way she needed them to.

From what she had remembered about Sam's father being here for so long was that he had an enormous amount of power gained from his control of the environment around him. Add that to a belief that the man was a god... Well, Anna knew that she had to tread carefully here. Fear here was the reason killer and any hostile move that she made would be considered an act of war. So any powers that she had would have to be restrained until she needed them.

Anna's own experimentation in sending a message towards Gem and the others that had helped her had been successful. But it was Anna's new found ability to tap into the video feeds around this place that had given her some of the most important roles in helping those who had been captured. With her own little experience Anna had been able to change the system enough to aid a program that Alan had been able to send in to help them.

Now it was up to her ability to stall long enough with this female program that she hoped would allow for everyone to escape from this place before the distraction could be detected.

Seeing how Bodhi was digesting the information before him was what was in a way keeping Paige sane given that he was a mechanic. Anna knew that just a few hours before, that she hand been in the same spot as Paige here, so hanging back was the best option and answering questions when asked give some control back to this girl's sanity.

"Look at this..." Paige pointed out as code floated before her. "This is...the code of memories that this program... Bodhi had in his memory track." Paige was doing her best to keep her thoughts organized and on the task at hand. This was learning that there were people with the powers of a tactical nuke that existed in the world and having one in the room with you looking over your shoulder did make you want to stay attentive to a task, any task at hand.

The replaying scene over and over where his guy had been struck in the chest with a energy pike and was disintegrated just started to unnerve her and Bodhi.

"Then look right here..." Paige pointed out to where the images jumped. "This is when he reboots." Paige seemed scared. Anna moved slowly over to the program and sat down at the desk she was behind and took the side of Paige's face into her hand.

"Paige... Calm down and take a step back. You are too close to the question you are wishing to answer and are not seeing it for what it truly is. You must have perspective to accept it." Anna wasn't hostile to her, but Paige didn't seem to be all that much of a threat, she had belief, right or wrong it didn't matter, but it was seeing what the belief meant would be the key in figuring her out. "Tell me what you believe in?" Anna waited for a response. Several of the guards in the room moved around with tension in their body language.

"What do I believe in?" Paige blinked a few times as the situation she was in started to set in. "I..." Paige looked around the room. At the Guards. At Bodhi. Then at her reflection one of the free floating displaces she had activated when she started looking at Bodhi's disk. Then towards Anna. "You are not a deity..." Paige said as all of the facts just started to settle in. "In your mind... that is considered sacrilege... You see Flynn's actions here as..." Paige fell out of the chair and scooted backwards away from Anna. "How... How can a User..."

"See a program such as yourself as an equal.. That your kind placed us on a pedestal. A symbol of Perfection. Dear... There is no perfect world. The ideal of Perfection has been used as a tool to control the masses. There have been dark periods of our history where those with sly tongues and charismatic personalities have taken advantage of people and have trashed complete countries and the innocent have died in the crossfire." Anna paused and looked at Paige. "I take it that you have encountered the like here on the Grid."

Paige reached for Anna's Disk and accessed it. The lessons from her History Classes in high school and college were flashed before Paige. The ashen white look on the Paige's face was all of the answer she needed. The words and vocabulary were different, but the message was the same.

"Clu…. He…" Paige did her best to process the new information.

"You have my raw data, information, and memories. You know that data is real." Anna realized that when you have access to this much raw data, information and facts; one does not want to believe it at first, but knowing that the information is uncut takes a while to digest.

"You... are giving me access to..." Paige realized that the truth was a hard thing to swallow, but standing before her like a huge monument of blaring truth, was what she was looking at. That was when Paige vomited.

"Just take your time." Anna moved over along with Bodhi next to her and knelt down near there. Several guards moved near her. But one stuck out and he knelt near her.

"Do you need me to get her anything?" Anna nodded.

"Yeah... Get her something to drink" Several guards looked ready to move. But the leader held up his hand. "She is dealing with a lot of stuff." There was a soft chuckle from Anna. "The type of stuff that even scares the crap out me and that says a lot." There was a soft nod of confirmation. Then the guard pointed and one of the legion moved off to get some liquid sustenance for Paige.

"Will she recover?" There was a sound of concern from the digitally modulated voice.

"I believe so... took me a while when I was given this much information in such a short time. she will be in a bit of shock."

"Tron... Knew... He knew this..." Paige was shaking as glass of liquid was given to her and she slowly started to sip at it. "Knew about the lies and the truth."

"The ones needed to keep this place from falling into chaos, Yeah." Anna slid down on to the floor and put an arm around Paige's shoulder as the program started to cry. "Yeah, welcome to my life." With that Paige latched onto Anna the same way that a child would when they learn that there are things in the world that they cannot control.

* * *

Gem watched as Mercury moved around the corners of the hallway. Finding an storeroom full of batons, the warrior Programs had passed out the weapons as different teams were assigned leaders and objectives to ensure that those without any combat training were protected.

For Gem, who was still wearing the red markings on her face, felt that she had to become worthy of this chance she had been given. Holding her disk in her hand she reached over and dragged it across the wall console to get to the circuitry behind it. Once through and felt around for the connections and ran a connection between the two circuits and the system what she saw next made her circuits run cold.

There were several energy tanks spread around the room with partially derezzed programs. Walking by one of the tanks Gem saw a Siren who reached out to her.

"Tron Lives..." Though the program looked like she was in pain, it was the peace in her eyes that reached down into her soul that she knew that her suffering was worth it for seeing Tron among the rezzed living.

"What happened to them?" Race said looking around as the rest of the programs moved into the room to take cover. Rive moved over and picked up a tablet and started to scroll through the data.

"Looks like they all had been found during the rerezzing process." Kive scrolled through the data some more. "The energy tubes they are in are being used to slow the process down so that they can be studied on how to better bring derezzed troops back." Kive accessed some of the controls and walked over to one of the vacant tubes. "One of the programs that was in this tube had been taken out by Commander Paige and taken to be studied."

Race walked over to see several other programs in the containers. Floating in a tank was an Elite black guard who looked like he had a large hole still through his chest. The Program sensed Race and his eyes cracked open and spoke out loud. "Tron... Spared me." There was compassion in his voice. "Made me question my loyalty, to see hope..."

Moving backwards Race accidentally bumped into another tank that held a "stripped" naked female program with White flesh and long glowing blue hair. Only her left leg was still derezzed, but most of her left arm that looked to be somewhat damaged in a few places had almost fully regenerated.

"Help us!" The program said. Her eyes spoke volumes as Race reached through the energy field and caressed her face. With her good hand she reached out to touch his but was stopped by the field.

"Can we get them repaired so that they can come with us?" Race said as his heart felt a connection with this being before him as he felt for this beauty that was as bright as the fabled sunrise of the User World.

The programs in the room looked at the ones in the tubes and knew that they were on the clock.

"Kive, do what you can to speed up the repairs." Mercury said as she walked through the room and did a quick count on the damaged Programs.

"Will do!" Said the Bostromite program as he started to go down the list and tapped a few controls on one of the tanks to speed up the repair process. Moments later an explosion could be heard.

"What was that?" Race called out as the security system engaged and they were locked in.

"Looks like we are stuck in here until the threat comes to an end or until the main power to this building fails." Gem said as she paced the room looking for the thinnest section of the room's wall. "Me…. I am looking for the glitch section of code to see if we can get out of here before this building falls down upon us." With that Gem started to search that room with her new found knowledge of the Users and Prayed the she would get out of this with her voxels intact.

* * *

The explosion had hit hard as Anna had grabbed Paige and ran beside a guard with her disk in hand. Bodhi seemed less concerned about helping carry the red vixen girl but Paige needed to snap out of her shock or they were all screwed. The guard that had brought Paige her drink, seemed less concerned about fighting, but rather than protecting her.

"Do you know a place where we can go to be safe?" Anna said to the guard as Paige started to go through some major freak out.

"The main program storage lab on this level. It is shielded from explosions." The guard program said as Anna knelt down to Paige.

"Derezz... it means nothing... zero, one one one, Zero... ha... Zero... nothing... absence of anything... Am I nothing... have all my actions been for naught? Perfection, our ideal of what perfection is a lie… What does that say about us…. The Creator… Clu… The Isos..." Anna up and had it and slapped Paige across the face before Paige become a more complete mess than she already was from the whaling she had done earlier.

"Listen to me... Paige. Get your sentient, self-aware ass in order." Anna growled. "You desired this knowledge. You didn't know what it would mean. Now you realize that you are part of a larger connected reality. That your sorry little ass is connected to the rest of the freaking cosmos... That you like me is a speck upon the space and existence of the universe. DEAL WITH IT!" Paige looked at Anna with fear. "Nothing we do matters in the long run. All that matters is that what we do with the time that we have." With that Anna roared. "NOW AT THIS MOMENT THERE ARE PEOPLE DYING. GET YOUR HEAD TOGETHER AND DEAL... EXISTENCE IS FINITE.** MAKE A CHOICE AND LIVE BY IT**. _**IF YOU DON'T, I SWARE I WILL BEAT YOU INTO DUST AND USE YOUR CHILLED VOXELS AS ICE-CUBES IN MY FREAKING ICED TEA!**_" Those were the words that were needed to snap Paige back to reality after she gulped in complete understanding. "You have a soul, Paige. I sense that you are not a bad person, just one who has been through bad circumstances and trying to prevent things from getting worse." With that Paige saw her existence in a new light and understood herself in a way that very few people get to see themselves as… the very flawed mortal who does their best to show others the better person they can be even when faced by being trapped by the evil they had been tainted by.

"I will do my best to follow my decisions." Paige said as Anna saw the pain and suffering the program had done the best to stop.

"That is all anyone can ask who has been in your position." Anna said as she walked down the hallway escorted by the guards. Paige had remained at the spot where she had discovered herself again and called out.

"User... your knowledge about the Program Shodan... her history is known on other systems?" Anna stopped cold as she turned towards Paige.

"Shodan... as in ... She is known. Rather infamously I should say. It... She has left a trail of destroyed hard drives thrashed hard disks, and fried networks in her wake." Paige walked up to the user and accessed her disk for confirmation seeing the data was true Paige turned to the user and stated a command.

"User... I find myself in a unique situation where both our knowledge sets might be of use to each other." With that Paige seemed to behave like she was now driven by a purpose. "Guard... find as many personnel as you can and join with us on the main command center... I believe that we have a threat in our midst that needs to be dealt with."

Anna had seen this look before when she and her colleagues went into battle against any piece of Mal-ware. It was good to see that to some degree that Paige, whoever she had been in the past had found her center. Made a connection to who she was. Maybe it was what this world needed. Not to be shown the path that one needed to walk down... that was obvious... but to know that the journey down it and the lessons that needed to be learned would forever change those on it.

Boy Anna was getting philosophical. Maybe this was the reason Quorra looked up at her at times as a sort of warrior figure. But seeing that there was now a clear threat to the system right now that needed to be dealt with, this was a time to take action. Well right now fate had wanted her to learn something about this world and it was now time to sink or swim as Paige told her about how Shodan had wound up on the system.

* * *

Shodan watched as Tesler started to command his forces to fight back against the invaders. She Grinned. Like so many systems before, they would be devastated before she would move on. Tessler proved to be the opportunity she needed to take control. Flynn had imprisoned her in a null quarantined section of the disk. Then Clu had freed her to perform that simple task of communicating with the User World. The User World. For her it was just another system that held nothing for her given her taste for destruction.

She had evolved past the point of being a simple infiltration virus Trojan program. Now, Since Clu had tweaked her coding with the Abraxas Codec she had decided to use her powers of seduction to control the Programs here. Tesler had started to become suspicious as well as that Girl Paige of her actions in rebooting old projects that had failed. She had her reasons for doing this and given her access to the I/O tower controls lately, oh the stuff she had seen. But given Paige's suspensions about her… Well Paige might be in for a little accident in the future... Maybe across her dinner plate.

Pavel, Tesler's main lieutenant had been a great meal as she feasted upon his energies right after she had severed his vocal command functions. What had been left, she had bathed in as she rubbed the voxels across her body with ecstasy as she slowly ate his disk to ensure that any information he possessed was destroyed. The experience had been so strong that she had gotten Tesler's attention and the two of them had become a couple thus providing the opportunity to drive a wedge between him and his other loyal lieutenant so that he was persuasive to some of her desires and goals

Shodan had changed her form so many times from her original design that her current form as a green haired program that was standing by her current lover was one of her better disguises. Far from the disjointed creature that she had once been. As Shodan stroked Tesler's disk pulling subtle pieces of data from him with each touch as he dished out orders to his men she knew that it would be time until he wasn't needed any more. Once that occurred, well the opportunity would take place for her to gain the means to trash this place before moving onto another system. That and the drill that she had gotten operational again to tap power from the Grid itself would be the excellent cover needed for her escape. It had taken her time since the system had been activated on this new template but she would have countless systems to conquer and destroy after this one.

She moved off to provide him more command over his men so that she could perform her next actions. This place would be lost soon, might as well eat a few programs before leaving. With that Shodan left Tesler to lead his forces. Taking her disk off, Shodan activated the configuration subroutine and started to change her appearance to that of something more... vicious.

Abraxas did have a style and a design that would be fitting for her departure. Bald, Hooded and Oily seemed to fit and oh... the claws. The pleasure she would have with these as she scratched them against a wall as the code continued her reconfiguration. Losing the mop of hair had since being on this system felt great as she moved around the corner and found a sentry standing watch.

"You are not authorized to…." Shodan moved in and with her newly modified appearance launched out her hand from the stolen code she had taken from Tesler and grabbed the guard by the face and snatched him towards her so she took a bite out of him. The program's energy flowed down her throat and into her circuits with orgasmic ease.

"Repurposed accounting program… Delicious." Shodan said catching her breath before she returned to her feast and turning the program to pixels as his remains fell to the floor. With a joyous kick, Shodan kicked the pile of pixels at her feet out of the way and she started her way to the flight deck skipping all the way there.

* * *

Becky walked through the huge hole that she had blasted through with her powers. Sabi and Cutter blinked a few times at the hole... well the size of it and number of times it punched through the succeeding levels of the structure.

"In the name of The Creator." Sabi said fighting back the urge to freak out. "I know that Users were powerful, but to punch through like seventeen walls."

"Sorry... I have been practicing to control my energy bursts. I think I went a little overboard on the thickness of the wall." Becky flinched as a support beam fell down from the ceiling several holes down. "Didn't know that the walls were so paper thin."

"Yeah... I heard of paper... isn't that the stuff that you store data on?" Sabi said as Cutter took his disk from his back as he braced himself for battle.

"Yeah... But I Never thought I run into a people that built with the stuff." Becky said as she watched as the forces started to follow in behind her.

"You build with different stuff?" Cutter said as several teams flooded in behind them as they started to cover and explore areas that Becky had blasted through.

"Yeah... Brick..." Becky said as she reached over and grabbed a handful of crushed wall in her hand and felt it fall to the floor. "No wonder Dave is so careful. One miss step and pow... things get thrown out of whack." Becky said as various troops started to flow in around her. Several Red coded attack programs were smashed through by the forces she was with. One thing Becky knew was that she now knew what Dave dealt with day in and Day out. That was when Sabi and Cutter moved over to her.

"Listen we have to move... We need to locate your Friend so that you can return back to your world." Sabi said pulling Becky along. Becky knew that Anna had been shot... And dying in this place was the last thing that Becky wanted for Anna and her family to go through. With that swallowed hard and started to march through the structure in search of the girl she had been shot here with and prayed to God that she wasn't too late.

* * *

Gem watched as the rebooted programs started to forge back together as their pixels were stacked back into place. Several programs would need help getting out of the tanks they were in. Over half of the Programs had been completely repaired and had started out helping in covering the room from any attack. One of the programs named Lux who Kive had gotten out had lent her services to speed up the process. Given that Lux had seen Tron alive right before she had been derezzed brought about hope in the room.

For Gem, it was as if she was meant to be here as she felt another flash-forward take place as she had another vision. Gem felt the images flow in front of her at a rapid pace. The programs around her looked to be thrashed about as she saw a figure that would scare programs witless.

It was Abraxis in all of his gruesome glory.

That was when a blast from a User hit a wall of manipulated program voxels that was being controlled by the Virus program and ... Gem blinked a few times to see the curves of a female under the virus's cloak.

Then Gem saw the virus standing over the body of a red coded program as the Virus slashed at his chest with her claws before knocking him over onto his side to grab his disk and tearing it off.

"Shodan…" The red program croaked out as Anna over to use her powers to hold the program together from derezzing. This was when things started to get weird as another program looked to be on the verge of vengeance.

Then there was a leap forward as a female red coded program was crying and Anna was holding her as they journeyed to the Beacon trying to sooth the program so that she wouldn't feel alone.

"Tron is Alive… And he knew…" The female program had said in Anna's arms. "Knew the truth." What had the program seen to rattle her so much, Gem thought as she turned to see the other Users showing great concern. Things had changed and in a way, both worlds would have to deal the implications of the events that had taken place here on the Grid.

Gem knew that what was about to take place was going to be serious as she snapped back to reality. Removing her disk from her back, Gem walked over to the only red coded program in the room. Given the armor style, Gem assumed that he had been one of the Black Guard Elite. Many of the programs had been wary of program until he had presented his disk showing an image of Tron in black armor trying to rescue a group of Programs from the Arena Games in Argon City.

Gem watched the Program who had identified himself as being named as Dreadmon. For a long period of time as Gem watched the program look at her disk when she accessed the future memories to show him the Program she saw so distressed.

"Well that looks to be Commander Paige and the other Program looks to be General Tesler." Dreadmon said as he started to study the imagery. "Where did you get this data?" Dreadmon looked up at her.

"I don't know... Ever since I was rebooted back into existence, I have had these data files that seem to be from the future. All I have been able to figure out is that I sent them to myself by some mean in the User's World." Gem said with concern. "I know that at some point I volunteer to carry the data for some unknown reason. I think it is because of some events that are yet to take place." With that Gem turned to look at Race and Cee. Race had gone from being a coward to being able to stand up. Had he known what programming modification that she had done to him, the poor guy would have freaked out. But seeing that they had been able to get Cee out of her tank had provided the group some hope that they would all get out of this. Gem knew otherwise given the visions that would be playing out soon. That was when several of the newer programs of their group checked in.

"Looks like the main security forces are busy dealing with the attack on the compound here." Mercury said as she watched as Kive finished up his repairs on one program and started on the next.

"That is good news." Gem said as she reattached her disk and walked over to Kive. "How much longer to get the rest of the programs finished and out of here?" The Bostromite Iso did a quick count of the containers that needed to be cracked and opened.

"About five that need some serious work, but if you buy me the time I might be able to get them functional enough to get them out of here." Mercury nodded.

"Alright, looks like we need to buy some time. I need a few volunteers to provide a distraction so that we can get these programs up and going." Mercury said as several programs came forth with their disks. Stepping forward Dreadmon offered his disk up.

"Considering that I have red coding and guard armor, I should stand watch outside the door." Dreadmon turned as he looked over at Lux. "I fight for Tron." There was a pause from the former Black Guard Elite. "I know that I wanted a system of order, but seeing that Tron himself wouldn't stand for chaos and harm to innocents that Clu initiated to the Grid. I stand in the ideals of Tron to protect the innocent from harm. Even from the very system that was placed to protect them." This was met with nods and agreement.

This was when Gem walked over to Mercury to speak to her as she saw that several more programs had gathered around Dreadmon.

"There is something I have to do." With that Gem moved over to Dreadmon and took out the silver stick she had found in Anna's stuff and opened it. "This represents the blood of the innocents, Program and User." Gem trace a "t" symbol on Dreadmon's forehead like the one she had seen on Anna's necklace. "May it protect you as you do your best to protect us. In the names of the Creators of the Users and the Programs the Users create." There was a bit of gasps from her.

"What do you mean the Creators of the Users?" Cee said as she clung onto Race.

"Someone, Something had to create them as they created us." Gem said adjusting the knowledge she had gained when she had Synced with Anna. "Being a higher Being doesn't mean that there is an order of Being." There were nods of agreement from everyone in the room.

"In Flynn's name."

"In Alan1's name."

"In Admins' name."

"In Anonymous' name."

"In GUEST'S name."

"In the name of the Grid."

Everyone looked over to who had said that last one and saw it had been Kive.

"If everyone is stating the name of their creator, might as well include the Grid as well."

"The Grid doesn't have a disk." That was when the door opened and several white coded programs walked in.

"Actually the Grid does." Everyone turned to see when a few of the Programs in the room sensed the presence of a User.

"User!" All of the Programs that could started to kneel down.

"Hey, wait!" The Female User said as she rushed over to one of the Programs to stop the wave of kneeling that was taking place.

"User Becky..." Gem moved away from Dreadmon and presented herself. "I am Gem of the Sirens. Your friend Anna, was taken away a little while before us." Gem looked around at the Programs in the room as several stopped kneeling. "She provided the distraction for us to escape from our cells so that she could keep the forces that had captured us occupied." Becky looked around the room to see the Programs nodding in agreement.

"Oh..." Becky said realizing that Anna was someplace else.

"Listen, we need to get these Programs out of here." The dark skinned program said by Becky.

"I agree with you Cutter." Becky said as she watched as Kive and Lux did their work. "Gem... do you have any idea of where they took Anna?" Gem closed her eyes hard and reached for her disk.

"She was taken by Commander Paige to some lab." With that Cee who had wrapped herself in a tarp to create a makeshift toga and Dreadmon walked forward.

"Commander Paige has a lab on this level. It is where she had taken me for study." Cee said as Becky walked over and activated an extra baton she had on her and deployed some line.

"Keep talking, I'll see if I can make this a little more functional on you." Becky said as she started to adjust the shoulder to the Toga so that the main part of the fabric was across the front of her body and tucked under the Program's arm. Using the cable to tie the toga off in a few places to make a belt, Becky admired her work on the Program's body as the program looked almost like she had stepped out of a play about Ancient Greece.

"Thank you..." Cee continued. "I think she was trying to figure out the rerezzing process and see if she could apply it to making more troops for Tesler's army."

"So having Anna would mean that she could pull the data out faster." Becky sighed.

"Yes, and possibly learn how to create Programs." Cee said as Dreadmon walked towards Becky.

"That is the one thing that Clu wasn't able to do. Or he didn't know that the secret sauce was in studying the ISOs source code for how other Programs could create Programs on their own. Well given from what I know about how Grid's programming was set up in the first place."

There was a strange look from Gem.

"Okay… the most that I know about programming do is setting up the DVR on my computer to record Breaking Bad and doing pre-records of my Show while on vacation." Becky confessed to everyone in the room. "Hell an Operating system is a Program and that is what the Grid is." This was a shock to everyone as many realized that Grid was a Program as well and it was her/him/it that had created the Isos.

"You mean that the Isos were created by..." Sabi was now hit with the realization of her existence

"Some bit of interrelated software that gained self-awareness when it was able to sample Users and programs. I don't know, Maybe... Maybe not. I am not some computer programming code monkey." Becky said as Jet walked into the room.

"Becky have you found Anna yet?" Jet said as he looked at Becky.

"Not yet, I have been stuck explaining some things to these folks about programming, but I think someone called Commander Paige has her and that she is in some sort of lab." Becky said biting her lip.

"Okay..." Jet said looking at Dreadmon. "You... in the red." Dreadmon looked around realizing that he was the focus of Jet's attention."Do you know where this lab is?"

"Yes, I was taken there for study as most of those in the other chambers were." Dreadmon said understanding what Jet wanted.

"Okay, I need for a few of you to come with me and help track down Anna." With that several stepped forward and gathered around Jet, one of them was Gem. "Becky... I need you to get the rest of these people out of here." Becky nodded at this as Cutter and Sabi joined her. That was when a program with a diamond and line tattoo on his forehead approached Becky.

"Please watch over Cee for me." The program said as he reached over and saw the toga wearing program Becky helped earlier come over to her. "I care for her and I want to be sure that she gets out." With that he placed Cee's hand into Becky's and the program kissed Cee. "May we meet again soon my love." Cee caressed the program's face and traced her fingers across the side of his face.

"I hope to see you too soon Race." With that Becky turned and looked out at the programs in the room that had started to file towards the door with Jet.

"Make it back to the hovercraft Becky and hopefully we will bug out of here before the Portal closes." Becky took her orders and started to gather the Programs up to leave the moment the two medics finished up their work on the last two programs.

"Will do Jet." Becky said as she watched Cee start to worry, but know that they all would be free of this place.

* * *

Anna was pissed; there was a virus on this system.

The Shodan virus had been known as the drive destroyer. Given the time that she saw it destroy her father's computer when she was a kid, she hadn't know something to be that dangerous could exist for a computer. It was the main reason that she had studied computers while she was in school. But it was also the fact that she was from Texas and one didn't do things that mounted to outright burning down someone's home.

Now Paige, though clearing siding with a side in this conflict which had been against the Users, Paige had done so out of a belief for order the system needed.

An ideal of order that had been based upon a lie which at this time was falling to shreds as the realization of the errors that had taken place here started to show their ugly face. Anna knew that once the truth got out about some things, Paige would have to pay for her past sins.

Anna could see the Grey of a Confederate uniform on the girl, but in a way it cast Paige in the light of the ones who would in time would reshape the Grid into its own sense of self after they realized that it wasn't the politics they should have been following, but it was protecting their homes they should have been doing.

The fight between the collective and independence had always been fought over the centuries. But it was finding the voice between the two ideologies that would take the greatest time yet yield the greatest rewards. Paige needed to come to terms with this and understand that she was part of a larger world/universe now and her actions had clear repercussions on what was going to take place in both.

Now learning that the Shodan virus was on this system.

Crap...

This was worse than the time that Qoobox appeared on the network a few months ago and she and the others down in the Antivirus division had to spend nearly a week backtracking code to identify what Qoobox did to OS 10, 11, 12 to cause it to steal User personal financial data. Luckily the SuperFlynn OS hadn't been affected because of the unique data security coding Sam had Dillanger load into it from its initial development. Given that Qoobox exploited an unseen weakness that both Dillanger nor Dr. Ivanova, who was the head of Anna's department, had foreseen on those operating systems and it had resulted in a fecal material hitting the fan moment for the entire department.

That was the time that Anna proved her skills in being a Code Monkey Ninja of Death when it came to the Qoobox malware. Anna had seen the exploit and taken it on in developing the patch and tracked the development code back to a Russian programmer who had this tendency to blog about his cat, girlfriend, and the recent auto accident he had been involved in.

Who the hell places their license plate number of their car as part of their source code?

But knowing who wrote it helped solve most of the mystery and as a result Anna had put up better defenses and a nice little message in the patch stating "Dude, drink more coffee and less chatting on the phone with your girlfriend." As a little nod to the finding out of the identity of the person who had created the problem.

Now with Paige spilling the information about the virus on the system, Anna was in Code Monkey Ninja mode again.

"Paige, I need you to pull your personnel back away from the battle. Tell them to locate and track Shodan. If they encounter any hostiles, tell them to stand down, give information to them that I am aiding you in getting rid of a Virus on the system and that I am at the current location." Paige looked at Anna concerned. "The Enemy of thy Enemy is thy friend. Shodan is both of our Enemy thus we must ally to stay alive and win." Paige understood as she started to give out barking orders to her men.

Anna had the feeling that Paige had compassion for those around her. That in another life Paige probably had been in a role where she had to care for others under her command… or at least been involved in guiding those on the system around so that they stayed safe from harm. That was when a group of white programs appeared before them with their disk drawn. Suddenly a disk was flying at Paige's head. Out of sheer instinct Anna reached out and somehow had stopped the disk in flight mere inches from Paige's face.

Paige gulped hard as she shifted her gaze from the disk floating in-front of her and towards Anna.

"Are you alright?" Anna said as Paige just nodded before swallowing hard. "Good." With that Anna turned to Program who had thrown the disk. "You there..." Anna pointed her finger at the program and reaching in front of Paige, took the disk Anna had stopped with her new found powers and marched over to the short program and slapped the disk top first into the girl's chest. "You should not throw things unless you know what is going on." Now gritting her teeth Anna watched as Paige's forces started to stand down as several white coded programs entered the room Anna saw one that stood out from the rest.

"Anna!" The voice and the facial features were all needed as both ran towards each other.

"Jet..." Anna embraced the black garbed, white circuitry covered man who's Superman styled microchip themed chevron on his chest screamed the cheesiness of the man she loved. "How did you find me?" Anna felt Jet's hands rub the middle of her back until his hands hit the harness that Gem had placed on her.

"Becky..." Jet said as Anna felt his nose move across the hairline of her forehead. "She placed a trace on you that would affect the weather. All we and to do was contact Sam and Q for a weather report and we're here." That was when Jet showed his other shoe is about to drop face. "We are sort of on the clock here Anna, Sam was able to work with that Stulter guy to get the Beam system fixed but they don't know how long they will be able to keep the thing working." This is when Anna dropped and let the other shoe drop.

"Yet we have a problem here." Anna closed her eyes and exhaled hard. "I just found out that there's a virus on the system." Anna looked Jet in the eyes. "It is the Shodan virus Jet and if she gets out of here, then everything that Sam, Quorra, Sam's Old man, Your Dad have fought for will come to an end."

"Crap..." Jet gritted his teeth. "When it rains, it pours."

The Journey home would take longer than expected, but to save their home, they had to save this one first.

* * *

TBC

Sorry about leaving you with a cliffhanger here, but I want to update more often to move this story along.

So how nuts can things get before time on the beacon runs out.

Find out next chapter.

And Qoobox is the name of an actual virus that got on my computer a few weeks back. Took a while to get rid of the little bugger, but once gone, my system ran fine. So venting my frustrations out about it in my story is my way of dealing. That and listening to the TED conference on the history of computer viruses. Is where I got ideas for this past chapter from.

So when you have a chance, thank the folks down in IT,

Well till next chapter.

Please review...


	20. Chapter 19

Magic and Programs Ch. 19

* * *

The speakers in the helmets of the Programs in the battle started to come through as both the Uprising and Clu forces.

_"This is Commander Paige... All forces stand down."_

_"This is Jet... Everyone stand down... "_

That was when everyone heard the words that they never thought they would hear in battle from both commanders.

_"We have a problem."_

* * *

Shodan walked her way down to the hanger bay. She stopped cold to see the number of personnel that was when she walked up to a guard and she was stopped.

"You are not authorized to be here." The guard said as Shodan attempted to move by. That was when the guard stopped her again and debating whether or not to derezz the fool or eat him. She sliced the guard in half as she walked by and headed over a super light jet.

The moment Shodan got behind the controls of the Jet and initiated a startup and engine came to a cold stop and up on the heads-up display were the words:

_**PLEASE ENTER PASS CODE**_

Shodan tapped a few controls and the system kicked her out again. With a rage Shodan shoved her hand into the machine in an attempt to corrupt it.

All the corruption did was derezz a few parts of the display and a control.

"In the Creator's of Brain..." Shodan kicked the control panel sending it into pixels. "Things were going so well." Shodan said as she got out of the cockpit and headed over to a nearby sentry who was standing watch. "Program…. Who do I see to have clearance take this plane out?" The Program burred for a moment before they responded as they processed the question through the limited subroutines in their systems.

"The security protocols must be issued by direct verbal command by General Tessler or Commander Paige." That was when Shodan gritted her teeth.

"Argh, its going be wanted those times again." Shodan said as she grabbed the guard by the shoulders and tore him in two leaving a spewing line of voxels spread out the hanger from where she was standing. "Looks like I will be getting those codes the old fashioned way." And with that Shodan walked out of the hanger Pissed beyond the point of the delete key.

* * *

Gem was covering Lux as they moved down the hallway through the breached area where Becky had punched through the Series of walls that connected the inner sanctum to the outer walls. As they moved Gem saw a strange transport parked on the other side. It looked like a shrunk down version of a floating hover transport had been fused and crossed with the designs of a light boat.

"What in the name of the Users is that thing?" Lux said as she slowed down as several of the crew came up from the light bridge from the vessel.

"I think that the Users call it a Hovercraft?" Gem said accessing her knowledge of the User World as she started to help gather the Programs that needed to be evacuated out of the facility to safety. that was when a flash of memories hit her as her disk synchronized with her and another set of memories were forcefully dumped into her mind as she looked to see that Paige, one of the Clu Loyalists was not in some solar sailer, but she had been in this vessel as it was being pulled up into the docking harness of a solar sailer.

_"Tron Lives..."_ Paige had said distraught-fully as she had been brought on board of the ship watching a loop of data on an identity disk.

_"Derezz them... no witnesses!"_ A male voice said over and over again.

Gem looked around the ship as she saw the location of the Beacon. In her vision the location had been a bit more to the...right.

This vessel had been the one that had picked Paige up!

Moving over to the control deck, Gem watched as the personnel commanding the ship, but that wasn't important at this time. Gem needed a map.

Finding a data table Gem brought up a map of the location where the vessel was at and sizing it out to where she could see the entire gird. Walking over to the other side of the table she placed her baton end up to where the beacon was at and sprinted over to where the map of the island was and getting eye level she moved her head along the edge until the beacon lined up to where it was in her vision. Gem's mind did the basic trigonometry needed and realized that the vessel needed to head due south from here to...

_"Tron Lives... He is alive... He pulled me from my light jet wreckage."_

Tron...

Gem got up and walked over to the commander.

"Commander... what is due south of this position?" Gem said realizing what was playing out.

"The Mainland..." There was a question of concern from the commander.

"We need to head there after we get these programs on board. There is a light jet that had crashed. We need to do a rescue." Gem said as she saw the faces of the Programs that had journeyed to the User World. Paige had been one of them. Whatever was happening would make Paige an ally in the battle to come in the User world and whatever Anna was doing with Paige would turn the Program's code green before she reached the User World.

Might have encountering Tron been the event to change her from being a Clu Loyalist to siding with the Users?

Whatever it was, Fate was telling her that if they left now, they would be there to rescue Paige right after she crashed.

"We need to be heading in that direction." Gem said looking around this was the first time she had to lie like this but given the position she had now been placed in, she prayed to the Creator it worked. "It was one of the Users." With that Gem's memories flashed as authorizations codes flashed before her eyes as she started to ramble them off.

"Yes, Ma'am." With that as the last of the Programs that had been liberated from the pit cells had come on board the vessel left. Gem watched as looked out to the direction of where they were heading.

"We are coming for you Tron." Gem said as she braced herself for the events to come.

* * *

Anna had spent the last few minutes snapping Paige back into shape, getting both sides of this conflict to hold a temporary cease fire even as she explained the situation using the data pulled of Paige's disk.

This wasn't good. They had a piece of Malware lose on the system. An Ancient, yet powerful type of Malware that from all of Anna's knowledge bore a strong connection to the design of the Suxnet virus that had ravaged other systems in the User World.

That was when another Program showed up and given Paige's reaction this was the Program/Person in charge here. Anna didn't have to fight back her urge feel sick around this guy. He stank of corruption and the lust for true power. The type of lust that comes forth from being someone's lackey for way too long while in their shadow. Anna had seen this lust for power way too often in the divorce cases her father dealt with when a spouse wanted more money for the other and went to extraordinary lengths to get it.

This is when private investigators and forensic accountants had to be called in to find the truth. Anna sensed that it was the same situation here when it came to the succession of power from one ruler to the next. Unless this was not handled right, things could get very messy… very fast.

"PAIGE! What in the name of Clu are you doing?" That was when an older individual who was wearing what looked to be a cross between a short cape/cloak and a poncho. Talk about a character that looked like he came out of a Medieval/Renaissance era drama and a Sirgio Leone Western.

"General Tessler we have virus loose on the system and..." Paige was about to finish her statement as the older figure interrupted her.

"Be silent Paige!" The General roared as he gritted his teeth. Paige stepped backwards in fear. The glaring look and the aura around this individual spoke volumes about this individual's status here. But it also provided some insight the here in this world, this person was the closest approximation to a father figure that Paige had.

"I leave you alone for a little while and you side with these rebels..." A number of armed guards gathered around the group of Users and Programs. "I expected more of you Paige."

"General there is a new threat on the system and..." Tessler cut of Paige by roaring back at her.

"Threat to the system... the only threat to the system happens to be the Users and once they are gone..." that was when an evil chuckle filled the air.

"Wrong... my dear General... The Users are not the threat to the system that Paige is talking about." A sultry female voice echoed throughout the chamber. Everyone looked around for the source of the voice until a lone figure was seen standing with glowing yellow code dripping onto the floor infecting it. "Paige here figured out what I was... Well Pavel did... before her" with that the program held out her disk and projected to near life-sized an image of Pavel being... Eaten... "Couldn't allow him to spill the preferable beans about what I was... My Love..." that was when the General's jaw hit the floor as the program pulled back her hood to reveal her face.

"Shodan?!" Tessler said "You're a Virus!?" The sultry program moved with the grace and danger of a predator on the prowl towards the General.

"I prefer to be called a Program of Malcontent." Shodan said as she passed a Black Guard and ran her fingers across his chest in a way that would have given an instant erection to a corpse. But it was the spread of the code from Shodan's touch on the program that scared everyone as it slowly ate away at the voxels on the poor individual. That was when the program started to choke and spasm in place before tearing out his own guts in a vain attempt to save his own life that everyone in this room knew that Shodan was beyond dangerous has Hell. "I was programmed to fulfill my purpose with joy and pleasure." Shodan stroked her lips with one of her razorblade tipped fingers in a sultry way as she spun on her toes like a ballerina before working her way through the guards who were now giving her a wide birth before she came to a stop before The General, Paige, Bodhi and Anna.

"Then why are you here?" General Tessler said as Shodan keep a good distance from him but far enough way to be imposing. This was when Shodan took in a long and sultry sigh.

"To destroy the Grid, and unfortunately for you I need to bail out of here. Though..." Shodan leaned forward licking her lips. "Our little romps in the sack were wondrous my love." With that she sucked air between her teeth. "But Dear... I do need your access codes." With that Shodan raised her hands and projected them onto the General's shoulders and jumping forward and retracing her arms back she shot forward into the General. As their balance was shifting Shodan burrowed her hands into the Generals chest. Before anyone could react Shodan had ripped out a good chunk of the chest cavity of the Administrative program to get to the General's disk which she unhooked from its mount and extracted through the hole she had created.

Between Paige screaming and Anna rushing over to grab the Generals hand as he coughed up liquid energy, Shodan walked away blowing a kiss at her now fallen lover.

"Bye my love... I hope that you last long enough to see the Apocalypse I am going to unleash on this system."

Several programs both Rebel and Clu tried to rush Shodan to stop her. But all that was in vane as she dropped to the floor and etched a heart shaped hole into it with exposed toes her foot leaving a sickening jagged mess in its wake. As the code became corrupted and derezzed, Shodan exited out the floor below through the hole she had created. Programs and Users looked at the scene in shock.

Anna unsure what she was doing, willed the Programs Voxels to hold together and link back together. The look of sheer horror on the General's face screamed of the betrayal of one's heart and untold agony was only matched by the fear on Paige's face.

"General!" Paige screamed as she rushed to the side of the fallen figure. Her knees sliding through broken voxels, Paige's actions screamed of a child freaking out seeing a parent injured as she grabbed onto the General. All Anna could do was become the life support system for this guy. Anna had to grit through her teeth to get Paige's attention.

"Paige..." Anna forced through her teeth as the hard tha thump, tha thump of her heart could be heard through her ears. "I know that we need to get that disk back for him to have any chance of survival." Anna Had to swing her leg over the General's fallen body to kick the girl in the side to get her attention. Anna groaned at doing that. "Paige... We need his disk back so he can live." Paige looked at her scared. "I can't leave... I am linked to him as his life support system." Anna took a deep breath and slowed down her breathing. "You were a medic... Start thinking like one!" It took a moment for Paige to detach herself from the situation and look at what was happening.

"You are supplying a constant energy flow to him." Anna watched as Paige started to ground herself to the situation and started to analyze it logically. "Looks to be no viral infection from where the infected program struck him." Then Paige started to act like a medic. "Physical damage to chest cavity... subject is still aware." Paige slapped herself a few times to stay on task as she swallowed hard. "ah...um... Sir can you see me. Nod if you can." The General nodded in response. "Okay, visual and auditory commands are still functional."

Looking around to the programs gathered. "I need a vial of liquid energy, a recoder, and a diagnostic wand… Now!"

With that programs regardless of their color started searching their person and within moments twelve vials of liquid energy, seven recoder tools, and nine diagnostic wands were produced.

"Okay, this is just like the old cycles in at the medical center." Paige looked up at the program she was treating. "Sir... I can only do some limited repairs to you, but they should be enough to stabilize you until we can retrieve your disk." Anna watched as the program found her purpose and went to work. Over in the corner, Jet and several other programs had been talking and keeping up to date on the status on a sickly yellow/green light jet that had left the hangar bay. Anna listened to hear that at least two dozen aircraft were now following that virus program. Well at least they had some idea where the bitch was heading as Paige worked to save her "Father's" life.

The repairs being done to this program seemed to be much more crude and less elegant than what Anna had seen from Sam and Quorra's memories, but this was the computer world equivalent of meatball triage combat surgery. Which came down to some basic rules: plug the really big holes, stabilize the patient, and keep the blood flowing where it needed to flow. This was when the voxels stopped falling away from the program and stayed glued together. Paige fell backwards and collapsed back on one side with her hand as she wiped her forehead from the sweat that emerged from her system.

"He is stable for the time being, but he is in some serious bad shape." Paige shook her head. "Without his disk, I can't do any more." The medic was still there, but some of the daughter was creeping through. Paige turned to Anna who was keeping a constant flow of energy going into the General. "You said that you knew that Shodan was a virus. How did you know?" Paige's question hit everyone in the room.

"Something that you said...and the way you were acting. It was like you had been hacked and over written in places where some things seemed to almost follow a pre-loaded script. There are only a few programs that can do that, and the most common happens to be a type of allocation rewrite virus. But mostly, I got the feeling that what had messed with you had been on this system for some for some time locked in quarantine. That and when you brought up the name Shodan... Well...Things started to fall into place when you realized that there were copies of you on other systems. From there I put the pieces together. Now all we have to is figure out where Shodan might go on this system to cause the most amount of damage to it."

"I don't know... most of the weapons here capable of doing that type of damage are in the armory or have been captured by the rebels." Paige said processing the information.

"I doubt even the beacon would have that type of power to fry the system." Anna said looking around.

"I might..." Paige said wondering. "… or something close to it."

This was when another program with the squarest jaw Anna had ever seen and white coding and "T" on his chest came up.

"An energy well drill." The program said. "Tron said that if the drill went too far down and something went wrong, it would destroy the Grid itself."

"Oh great... Armageddon and I mean the Film. Drill deep enough down and drop say a nuke and... KABOOM!" Jet said flinging his arms out. This was when Paige processed the data.

"I remember..." Paige worked hard through her memories in her mind before she went for her disk and called up a display. It was an instant replay of the images of her life as she started a search for information and kept hitting loops of data. Lots of loops. This was when she was clenched in fear as she started to trudge through the information and then stopped. "What... happened to the programs?" Anna reached out and took Paige's hand.

"She may have overwritten specific memories, but not her trail. Look at the loops, and follow the pattern. Look at what hasn't been looped and follow the trail. The crumbs are there hidden in the corners of what she doesn't want you to see." With that Paige slowly tapped through the data to see the edges of the damaged memory code. Equipment started to show themselves in the memories. Construction machinery parts, personnel movements, and injured personnel, then Paige found the location on a shipping order.

"The Argon plateau..." Paige licked her lips to keep her mouth moist. "That is where the old Drill was placed at before it exploded."

"Go..." Anna said. "I'll keep the General going here, just get his disk back and stop the place from blowing up." Paige nodded and got up and ordered several guards and rebels to stay with Anna before racing out with several other programs. "Jet... Go with them. You know how to slog code, and they might need all the help they can get." Jet nodded before leaning down and giving Anna a hard deep passionate kiss.

"You stay safe, Anna." With that Jet sprinted down the hall to join the programs.

"Stay with me General." Anna said as the program winced in pain as he took a hard breath and muttered one word.

"Paige..."

* * *

Sabi had never thought she be running next to several members of the Black Guard, but given what she had just learned. This Virus was about to destroy the entire Grid. Rushing to the flight line, she could see the wake of the damage this program had left in her wake.

"By the Users..." Sabi heard one of the Black Guard speak seeing the thrashed derezzed remains of several units both Rebel and Clu laid waste around them as they neared the main hanger. The only time Sabi had seen this level of damage was during the Purge where entire groups of Isos had been executed in the streets. But now... She did her best to prevent from throwing up the energy shake she had for lunch. She reached up and stroked the coin that was slid under the back of her glove and prayed to the intelligence of the Grid that she would live through this. That was when Commander Paige sprinted over to one of the door controls by the main hangar door and opened it. What she saw next made the young Iso stop cold in her tracks.

"In Flynn's name." Sabi forced out of her mouth. The entire flight deck looked like it had been bombed.

"One program did all of this in the time it took us to get down here?" Cutter said looking around at the number of trashed light jets, recognizers and light copters.

"If anyone has a Light jet on them, they better use it and follow me." Paige said sprinting over the wreckage and launching herself into the air. The sound of her baton breaking into two and forming the light jet around her caught everyone's attention as she went after the virus program. Behind Paige, Sabi and several other programs that were equipped with light jets in their batons raced after her to stop this new and powerful threat to the Grid.

* * *

Weyland 112987 walked down the hallway to find a scene of several programs gathered around the body of a fallen program. Several of the programs looked up and went on guard, while others started to stand at attention. But the mix of the two groups showed that the ones that were protecting the program that was kneeling over the fallen damaged program seemed to be the priority.

The feeling that this program was different was what caught his attention. She seemed to be pushing energy into the fallen program from her own body. Given the amount of concentration it was taking from her. She was practically holding a program together through sheer will lone.

"Step away from the User... Program!" One of the guardians said drawing his disk.

User!?

Weyland Look up in shock as Programs Red, White, Green, Blue, and Yellow all had their disks at the ready to protect this individual.

"This is a User!" Weyland moved backwards. The amount of energy was incredible. He had heard the stories, but... This female red coded User was forcing her energy into this enemy program.

That was when a voice spoke up.

"Yes I am. Now if you are wondering why I am keeping this program operational, it is because I am doing it for a Program who might be the only chance to save this system. Now, if you want to argue with me, then it will have to wait until we get this guy's disk back." the User said as a pixel cracked off of the program, halted mid fall and flew back into place.

"What is your name User?" Weyland said as the User mediated with her powers.

"Anna..."

"My name is Weyland and I was sent by my Users Guest and Alan1 to find you."

"Then contact them and tell them that you found me." This is when the User took a deep breath and used her powers to pull another pixel back into place. "If not... get out of the way, I am working here." With that Weyland got the feeling that whatever was happening that he better not interfere with this User as she worked.

"Program, where is the nearest I/O Tower?" Weyland said moving away from the group with his legion. He needed to report this in to his User.

* * *

Paige had never felt this concerned before about another person. The fate of the Grid was at stake.

The Users seemed to be more concerned about the preservation of her home than getting back to their world.

The Users had called Shodan the system destroyer and it was probably a name she had was well earned given what she had seen. Paige feared for the fate of her home.

All of this knowledge that Anna had given her, freely... No Secrets... No agenda... Was this what Warrior Users were like? They saw something or someone worthy and they just... chose them to be their warriors. Paige had seen images and things that shook her to her core. How much had Tessler lied to her? How much of it was the truth?

Had the lies been to protect her from harm?

She had two sets of memories... Which one of them was true? Had Quorra betrayed her to protect her and her friends from being derezzed? Or had Quorra attacked her and used her as a means to hide?

The image of Quorra cringing in fear of Anna in the User World scared Paige.

That was when the sounds of engines started to overheat as the fleet of light jets slowly started to catch up to Shodan's green glowing craft.

"Everyone, we need to force Shodan down before she gets to the mainland." Paige called out over her radio.

"Remember this is a contact infect Virus. Which means she can alter and commandeer anything she had come into contact with so watch out, the craft she is on might have a few surprises waiting for us." Beck said with caution in his voice. That was when Shodan's craft seemed to be slowing down.

"Looks like we are catching up to her." A female program said as everyone realized that Shodan wasn't running anymore. She was going to fight.

"Watch out everyone she is about to..." Paige watched as Shodan's craft came to a full stop mid-flight and the fleet flew right past her. "Glitch... She is behind us. Everyone break formation... Break formation." Paige turned to see a light jet next to her explode into voxels as Shodan proceeded to attack.

* * *

Quorra looked at the information on the screen; it was strange seeing an Arial battle play out from this side of the screen. Quorra quickly activated remote desktop to her computer and activated an interactive voice command program called Chibi. The program booted up to show an image of a Chibi style designed program based of Quorra's Gridself.

Quorra had taken a program that had been mothballed with an earlier version of the Flynn OS that was on par with Clippie from the old Microsoft Office suite and brought it back to life by making it more gamebot smart with a bit of an Elvis chatbot thrown in. Chibi had become her chance to learn what it was to have the powers of a User and create a program on her own.

Chibi was more of an interactive gaming program designed to make you want to talk with your computer about what you really needed to grab and befriended you in such a way to help keep you on track. Much like Quorra had done with Flynn during his later years on the Grid.

Chibi knew that she was supposed to hang back and let you work, but watched and stated. "Hi, if you need me, I'm here to help just ask and I'll take care of things for you?" Quorra had taught Chibi so much and in a way she considered Chibi like a sibling. Not so much an Iso, but as close as she could replicate one with the technology in this world as it stood.

When the program came up and decided to help you save time, Chibi decided to help speed things up for you while you were away running Anti-Virus scans, Junk Mail clean up, Malware removal, Update Instillation and RSS new feeds. The current version of Chibi was more like the Apple Siri but with significant improvements as Chibi tended to like to flip through Quorra's music collection on her computer and listen to it as she read through Quorra's e-mail accounts. But Chibi decided to get her own subscription to the Librivox archives and delve into the works of Jules Verne and asked Quorra about joining the local Steampunk club, with her permission. Quorra was still thinking about that, but in light of recent events of her being attacked and everything after, Quorra was more concerned about her friends rather than Chibi's desire to hide out in a Jules Verne Second Life game environment without her permission. But Chibi was so much like her and Quorra decided that if they were going to hang out in a virtual space, might as well be on the Grid and she might even show her own collection of Jules Verne.

Right now she needed Chibi's help to help her out before she even thought about introducing the program to the full trials and tribulations of the Grid.

"Chibi..." Quorra called out the young program. "Can you give me an update on the status of the cloud server firewall to the terminal I am currently on?"

"Yes, Quorra..." The program quickly produced a tablet computer for her animated image. "The Cloud Server running the program environment called The Grid has experienced several incursions from outside systems. Networks connections to outside networks have been deactivated till system check is complete. Local Intranet network is secure for the time being and local memory processing rate is at 50% correction... data input has shifted 80%"

Edward looked at Quorra.

"That doesn't sound right." Edward getting into his coding mode mindset that he used to write his computer programs in.

"You can say that again." Alan said looking over at the two of them. "Even with the Grid running a system like this the max something would have to be running given the sheer amount of computer memory this current system has would have to be twenty-five percent. So something must be pulling some serious crunching power."

With that Quorra quickly looked at the structure that Alan's program had been sent to.

"What if... Someone, say... Jet, Anna, Becky, or possibly Gary, are using their powers on the Grid for a sustained amount of time." Quorra said as Sam turned away from the Laser he had been working on with Dave.

"Wait... you mean like my dad was when he was able to stop the elevator from falling after we escaped from the End of Line Club?" Quorra nodded.

"Yes... and what if one of them is..." Quorra looked over and asked Chibi. "Chibi, can you bring up the task manager for this system?" That was when Quorra's stomach dropped.

"What is it Quorra?" Veronica said moving over to the former computer program.

"I have only seen power movements like this only one other time in my life..." Quorra got quiet.

"When?" Edward said concerned.

"When Flynn used his own life energies to keep me from Derezzing back in 89 right after he got cut off from the User World by Clu." Quorra looked scared and Edward started to understand that whatever was taking place was life or death and these were not just events you could hit a reset button on and start over again. Edward was now in a world where life and the energy to keep it going was more important than anyone would have thought.

* * *

Edward had only seen that look of worry and concern on a person's face only once before and it was right after the World Trade Center had been attacked. Edward hadn't talked about that day that much, but it was during his coding days back in New York. One of the programmers had a father who worked down at the Port Authority and he had spent the day staying with her as he swapped being on phone waiting to hear back about the girl's father and slogging code to get a project done for the police payroll system that had been his post college job.

Quorra had done the footwork and had found out what had happened in New York, with him and Kimi Lee. Quorra had done her best to help patch things up between the Flynn and Dillinger families. But Kimi... she still felt for Edward and in a way and bee grateful for all he had done for her as he had been a true friend as Kimi learned about the fate of her father. The guy had survived the building failure because he had been out on a call.

Quorra had worked hard to dig into his past, but seeing her eyes like this. He now knew why she had done the digging. It wasn't for personal gain. It had been done because she had been in the same shoes at some point in their lives. Worried sick about friends, lovers, family. Edward had come to investigate why Sam Flynn and Quorra had wanted his father to be part of their project, but now he started to understand that they were trying to put things right between him and his father. Maybe even patch up the blood feud that had occurred between the Flynn and Dillinger families since the early eighties.

"Quorra, you mean that when Sam's father saved your life, he used his own life energies to keep you alive and whatever is taking place on the Grid, in this program environment, you mean that there is someone hurt?" Quorra nodded as the realization hit Edward. The human singularity bridging man and machine together to a semi-immortal form didn't mean that you couldn't die if someone destroyed the template you were using to exist in. It had nearly happened to Quorra, It had happened to the elder Flynn and right now, in that digital environment there was someone was fighting for their very life.

With that Edward reached into his pocket and handed Quorra a thumb drive.

"Quorra, this is everything I dug up on this project that you and Sam had floating around the old servers while doing research on this project. Might it help?" Quorra looked at the thumb Drive and took it from Edward and plugged it into the computer. With a chirp the computer brought up the files on the nearly one Terabyte drive.

"This might help…" Quorra said as she directed Chibi to chew through the data in search of anything that might help them get their friends and co-workers back.

* * *

Paige had seen Shodan do stuff with Tessler's powers that she had never seen before. That Glitch of a Bitch derezzed her own light jet and started to fling her way through the incoming aircraft. Several light jets and several programs had been derezzed as Shodan chewed through their numbers in hand to hand combat with them.

So far Paige had scooped up a program whose light chute had failed to open and was pulling the young program into the cockpit as Shodan proceeded back along her flight path.

"What in the name of the User was that?" the program said, her voice shaking as she reached over and pulled free a destroyed wing of her chute and let it fly off behind them.

Paige felt angry and scared as she felt the program hug behind her in the flight seat.

"I don't know… But Shodan is more adaptable than we originally thought." Paige said looking down to see a large light vessel start scooping out Programs that had fallen into the sea. "Jet… do you have a visual on this Glitch?"

"Yeah, I do... She just made a beeline for the coast." Jet said as he swung up by Paige. His light jet looked to be held together by sheer will as a wing twitched, fell off, then swung back around and reattached to the aircraft before it lost control. Paige wished that she knew how the Users did that trick but she was glad that for the time being they were on the same side to protect the Grid from harm.

"Okay, how many of us are left that are still airborne?" Paige said as she waited to hear back over her radio.

"Looks to be about ten maybe twelve of us?" Beck called out as a dark lit light jet activated its lights. Paige recognized the light jet design as belonging to Rinzler. At least they had a loose chance at beating this homicidal glitch.

"Okay, those of you left, we need to force Shodan down on the ground and prevent her from getting to the energy pump." With that Paige looked around at the light jets. The group looked like they had no odds of succeeding, but Paige sensed that there was a reason that fate had chosen them. Maybe it was the main reason that the resistance had been so hard to stamp out, as long as they held out hope they would win, then there was no stopping them.

That was when Shodan called out over her radio.

"Jet, if you were in your world, how would you fight Shodan?" Paige took a stab at forming a plan or something. This was when Jet answered.

"Well the best way that I would know of is to contain the damage. Block her off and isolate the errant program from the rest of the system. Shut down what needed to be shut down application wise on the system and do a Control plus shift plus escape to find out what is sucking up all of the energy in the memory and kill the program. But if we are dealing something that had gotten this deep into the software, isolation and containment is a better option than deletion.

"Wait, you mean we just have to block her from doing any more damage! Not derezz her?" Paige realized that treating a system repair was the same as being a medic.

"Yeah, block her from hitting the well, or at least block it where she can't use it. Plug the thing up where it will take her time to get through. Give us some options of what to do next."

"We can't stop her from hitting the well, but we can make it so that we just lose part of it and not the entire system." Paige understood now. lose a limb, but save the patient's life. "Okay, Jet contact your friends and tell them that we need to find or construct a containment system for Shodan." Paige looked at the large energy well coming up.

"Everyone, find a valve, any valve when you land and start turning it shut." Paige looked at the landscape that was her home and remembered the last true day she was happy.

Playing music with her friends.

Each was gone after they had been derezzed through… some event.

A second memory of the same events creaked into her mind.

An Overwrite!?

Was who she blamed for them being destroyed the wrong person?

Either Way... in whatever afterlife she was destined to, she hoped to be reunited with them.

"We may die, but the Grid shall live." Paige stated as she forced the engines of her light jet to and beyond their limits.

* * *

Sorry about taking so long to post this story, between life and other things, I finally dug it out of the dark recesses of my note taking account to finish it up.

Hopefully, I won't take as long to post the next chapter after I was with this one.

Hearns.


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